Aman Sehrawat Saves India From Embarrassment By Locking Paris Olympics Quota, Deepak Punia Eliminated

Aman Sehrawat lived up to the high expectations by locking the Paris Olympics quota in the men's freestyle 57kg category but Deepak Punia was eliminated from the qualification race following his crushing first-round defeat at the World Qualifiers in Istanbul on Saturday. Aman, the U23 world champion and also the senior Asian Championship title winner, was expected to put up a strong show and he did not disappoint. The 20-year-old Aman, who trains at Chhatrasal stadium, got double digit scores in all his three bouts, winning two of them by technical superiority.

He is first Indian male wrestler to secure berth for Paris Games, saving the country from embarrassment of no qualification in men's section.

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya also competes in 57kg and if WFI holds trials Aman may have to wrestle with him to book his Paris ticket.

Also putting up an impressive show was Sujeet Kalkal, who lost the men's 65kg semifinal 1-6 to Mongolia's formidable Tulga Tumur-Ochir, the Asian Games champion and Asian Championship silver medallist.

Before losing, Sujeet, who competes in a category which the celebrated Bajrang Punia had made his own, expectedly put up a fighting show, winning 3-2 against Uzbekistan's Umidjon Jalolov and followed that up with a technical superiority victory against Korea's Junsik Yun.

He now needs to win two bouts on Sunday to qualify for the Paris Games.

Aman logged points comfortably in both his bouts, winning 10-4 against Georgi Valentinov Vangelov before overpowering Ukraine's Andrii Yatsenko.

Yatsenko was quick but Aman proved too strong for him. Locked several times in arm-locks, Aman found ways to attack his rival's right leg and converted them into take down moves. He won by technical