Aman Sehrawat of Chhatrasal Stadium, Delhi achieved the distinction of becoming the World Champion of Under 23 in the Spanish city of Pontevedra recently. Till date no Indian wrestler has been able to achieve this feat at this level. After his return back to home, the entire Indian contingent received a grand welcome and Aman promised to repeat this performance in future major international competitions.
Aman has achieved this feat in 57 kg freestyle wrestling. In the same weight, Ravi Dahiya won a silver at the Tokyo Olympics last year. Aman also practices with Ravi Dahiya at Chhatrasal Stadium. He said that he was his senior and guided him very well. Whether he had the stamina to beat Ravi Dahiya, he said, “Look, this job is difficult but not impossible. If I work hard, I can do wonders and defeat him. I will leave no stone unturned from my side.” Aman proved himself by defeating wrestlers from Sri Lanka, Japan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey in one-sided affairs in this event. He scored a total of 46 points in these four bouts, while conceded only 11 points. Aman told that among them Japanese wrestler Abe Toshiya was the World Junior Champion of 2019. Before his bout, he thought it was going to be a very tough but he beat him 13-2.
Toshiya would fight in front of him in such a way that he did not even expect such an easy win. Aman said that in the final against Ahmet Duman of Turkey, who was a silver medallist of the Asian Under 23 championship, he had decided that he had to win the gold medal in any case. This mind-set proved to be decisive for him.
Aman believes that if all his fellow wrestlers had got the visa, they could have even won the team championship because most of the wrestlers in the team had won medals. He also expressed his gratitude to his coaches. He added, “The coaches only said that as I was doing, keep doing it. All will be well and I am glad that the same thing happened again and again.”
Aman believed that at the national level, he had tough competitors in his weight category, which helped him in preparing for bigger competitions. It is true that many senior wrestlers had now moved to higher weight categories but in spite of that many talented wrestlers had entered in his weight to give tough competition. He said that when he gave even two to three points while winning gold in any competition, he would be disappointed as his aim was not to give so many points in the next competition.
It is worth mentioning here that Aman has been the champion of Under 15, Cadet and Under 23 categories at the Asian level. Apart from this, by becoming a World Cadet and now a champion in World Under 23, he has raised the flag of his talent. Similarly, he has proved his talent at the national level by winning gold in the National Championship and National Games. Aman said that Chhatrasal Stadium had played the biggest role in bringing him to this level. He said, “I came here only at the age of 10-11 years. I don’t have parents. My uncle used to take care of me. My Kaka was a wrestler but not at the higher level. My uncle didn’t let me worry about the expenses. The truth is that I didn’t have the need to ask for anything separately from him.” Aman’s next target is to win a medal in the Asian Games and then a place in the Indian team for the Paris Olympics and then winning a medal is his biggest goal.
