Aman Sehrawat begins new year with title, braces for showdown with Ravi Dahiya in race to Paris
For months on, Indian wrestling’s biggest prodigy, Aman Sehrawat, had to suffer a snippy taunt at his akhara – dheela.
It had nothing to do with his relaxed demeanour. Rather, that was how Sehrawat’s coaches described – at times sarcastically, sometimes in a caustic way but always out of frustration – his wrestling style in the opening few exchanges of a bout. The barb would have perhaps rung in his ears on Wednesday.
While he went on to win the 57kg title at the UWW Ranking Series in Zagreb, beating China’s Wanhao Zou 10-0 in the gold medal bout, Sehrawat was a little slow off the blocks earlier in the day in the opening round.
In his first bout of the year, the 20-year-old, allowed Turkey’s M Karavus a four-point takedown within the opening 10 seconds of the Ranking Series tournament in Zagreb.
That move seemed to have woken up Sehrawat as it was the only time Sehrawant conceded points in the tournament. Quick and aggressive, Sehrawat steamrolled his opponents, including Karavus against whom the Indian took 10 straight points, to begin the Olympic year with a title.
For Indian wrestling that’s been mired in doom and gloom of player protests, adult harassment allegations against former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, international suspension and a domestic flux for a year, this was rare good news.
Better even for Sehrawat’s coach, who was thrilled that the off-season work to improve the wrestler’s slow starts paid off.
“There weren’t many tournaments in the last few months but we didn’t stop working even for a day. The entire time was used to improve his starts,” said his coach Lalit Kumar, who was on Tuesday feted with the Dronacharya Award. “It took some time to drill the idea in his mind that if he wants to be at the Olympics and win a medal, he can’t be dheela even for a second on the mat.”
Sehrawat vs Dahiya for Olympic spot
Being at the Olympics and standing on a podium isn’t plain rhetoric. Sehrawat, from Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium, is tipped widely to follow the footsteps of the academy’s alumni Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya – all Olympic medallists.
Still in his second year in senior wrestling, the Paris Olympics might have come a little too early for the junior world champion and senior Asian champion in the 57kg weight class. But that hasn’t stopped him from preparing for a potential showdown with Tokyo Olympics silver medallist and his idol Dahiya at the selection trials next month.
The winner of those trials will get the first chance to clinch an Olympic berth at a qualifying event in April. And even that might not be enough to get on the plane to Paris. The final trials for the Paris Olympics are likely to be held on May 31 and June 1 and the winner of that will get a shot at Olympic glory.
Aman Sehrawat, in 57 kg category during the trials, at IG Stadium, in New Delhi on Sunday, July 23, 2023. (news photo by Abhinav Saha)
Potentially, there could be more than one bouts between the country’s two best lightweight wrestlers to decide who gets to be the sole representative in the 57kg category.
Dahiya, because of his international pedigree, would have been an obvious choice until not too long ago. But Sehrawat’s gradual rise and the Tokyo silver medallist’s bout with injuries have spiced up the contest. The fact that Dahiya lost to a nondescript wrestler from Maharashtra during the Asian Games trials – which Sehrawat won without breaking much sweat – adds another layer to it.
Symbolically, perhaps, Dahiya has chosen France as his venue to compete in his first international tournament in a year. Watching him closely next week would be Sehrawat and his coaches.
“At Chhatrasal, we have always had a problem of plenty so it’s not uncommon to have more than one world-class wrestler in a weight class,” Lalit says. “Both will be well prepared. Ravi has his team and Aman trains with me, as he has since his childhood.”
Stint in Dagestan
At Chhatrasal, Sehrawat’s upper-body strength and quick leg work have been spoken about highly for years. In the last few months, Lalit has worked on improving his reaction time at the start of the bout.
It was a major deficiency in Sehrawat’s game, Lalit says, one which was exposed thoroughly during the World Championship last year. “I gave him an earful after that. It was his first year on the senior circuit so everything was new for him but at that moment, we knew that if Aman has to win at major events, he’ll have to start better. He can’t be dheela,” Lalit said.
And so, during the off-season training, he was paired up with partners who were quicker and tested his reaction speed. His diet was modified to increase speed and short sprints were introduced to his routine.
Lalit admits Sehrawat is still a work in progress and to evolve further, the wrestler is set to travel to Dagestan, one of the biggest wrestling hubs in the world. It’s the first time Sehrawat will travel outside India, rather outside Chhatrasal Stadium, for training.
“He’ll spar with new partners since wrestlers from all over the world land there. It’ll open him up to new styles and techniques,” Lalit says. “It’ll be a short stint, just to provide a finishing touch to his preparations before the selection trials next month.”
