CHENNAI: Aman Sehrawat and Sujeet Kalkal made it to the semifinals in the 57kg and 65kg weight categories, respectively, even as Tokyo Olympian Deepak Punia went out of contention after losing his first bout against Zushen Lin of China at the World Olympic Games Qualifier in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday. While one more win will help Aman and Sujeet secure the Paris Olympic quota, Punia went out of the race as Lin eventually lost his quarterfinal bout.
As per the criterion, only two finalists, apart from the winner of the play-off between two bronze medalists, secure an Olympic quota each in every weight category. Had the Chinese wrestler entered the final, Punia would have gotten another shot at qualification through the repechage round.
Apart from the trio, Jaideep (74kg) also reached the quarterfinals by the time of filing of this report. The other two Indian wrestlers—Deepak (97kg) and Sumit Malik (125kg)—however, bowed out of the tournaments as their respective opponents, who defeated them earlier, were also knocked out in the subsequent round. Aman, the 2023 Asian Games bronze medalist, overcame Georgi V Vangelov of Bulgaria 10-4 before outclassing Ukrainian Andrii Yatsenko 12-2 by technical superiority to make it to the semifinals.
Sujeet, the 2022 U-20 World Championships bronze medalist, had a tough first bout as he edged past Umidjon Jalolov of Uzbekistan 3-2. Jalolov was the U-20 world champion in 65kg when Sujeet finished third. Sujeet then claimed a 10-0 win by technical superiority over Junsik Yun of Korea to make it into the quarterfinal, wherein he defeated Lachlan M McNeil of Canada 10-0. In the 74kg, Jaideep defeated Vasile Diacon of Moldova first before overpowering Simon Marchl of Austria 11-0 by technical superiority in the next round. He will next meet Taimuraz Salkazanov of Slovakia in the quarterfinal.
Punia was leading 3-0 against Lin at the break. The Chinese wrestler then had a takedown and a gut-wrench to lead 4-3. Punia then equalised with a stepout but a late takedown by Lin meant the Indian wrestler lost the bout 6-4. Lin then defeated Patrik Puespoeki of Hungary by technical superiority to reach the quarterfinal. Vasyl Mykhailov of Ukraine defeated Lin 6-3 to put an end to Punia’s campaign.
His namesake, Deepak, who competed in the 97kg, lost 1-5 to Mogomedgadji Omardibirovich Nurov of North Macedonia in his first bout. Nurov was then defeated by Erik S Thiele of Germany in the next round, which also ended Deepak’s hope of making it to the repechage. Sumit Malik’s loss to Aaron A Johnson of Jamaica was surprising. The Indian wrestler, who had qualified for the Tokyo Games only to return dope positive, thus missing the event, was a favourite but could not meet the expectations. The Jamaican wrestler was then beaten by Aiaal Lazarev of Kyrgyzstan 10-0 in the 1/8 round. The loss also ended Sumit's campaign. Only five Indian women wrestlers have qualified for the Paris Games so far.