Paris Olympics 2024: Aman Sehrawat claims bronze, Neeraj Chopra bags silver

Summary: Aman Sehrawat claims a bronze medal in 57 kg wrestling, while Neeraj Chopra wins a silver medal with his second-best 89.45 mt throw. 

Neeraj, who bagged a silver medal for his 89.45 meters javelin throw, applauds Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem for securing a gold medal for his throw of 92.97 meters at the Paris Olympics 2024. 

He said, “Arshad did well, and I would like to congratulate him. I have been competing with him since 2016, and this is the first time he has won while competing.” 

The 26-year-old athlete revealed that an injury significantly impacted his training, reducing his practice throws and decreasing his pace. However, Neeraj is enthusiastic about enhancing his performance once he recovers from his groin injury.

Meanwhile, Aman Sehrawat wins a bronze medal in 57 kg wrestling with a dominant win over Puerto Rico's Damien Cruz. After losing badly to Japan's Higuchi Rei 10-0 earlier, Aman bounced back to dominate the Puerto Rican in a match that ended 13-5 in the Indian's favor.

However, about 24 hours before his Olympic medal haul, there was a feeling of worry in the Indian camp, similar to what happened earlier this week, which ended in Vinesh Phogat suffering an awful twist of fate.

Following his semifinal loss to Japan's Rei Higuchi at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sehrawat weighed 61.5 kg on Friday, which was precisely 4.5 kg over the allowed limit in the men's 57 kg category. 

To lose weight, they started with a 45-minute mat practice in which he was made to perform standing wrestling by the two senior instructors. An hour-long hot bath session came next. He went to the gym thirty minutes after midnight and ran nonstop for an hour on the treadmill. After a 30-minute break, he had five sessions of five minutes each in the sauna. 

After the last session ended, Sehrawat lost 3.6 kg. After receiving a massage, he went for a 15-minute run and some mild jogging. The coach exhaled with satisfaction as they saw that by 4:30 am, his weight fell to 56.9 kg, 100 grams below the permitted limit.

With ten hours remaining until the weigh-in the following morning, senior Indian coaches Jagmander Singh and Virender Dahiya, who were part of the six-member wrestling contingent, had a "mission" to complete, as the Indian camp could not afford another shock.

With his victory, India now has six medals total—five bronze and one silver—and Sehrwat made history by becoming the country's youngest Olympic medalist at age 21. With just over a minute remaining, Aman had a 10-5 advantage. Despite this, his determination and drive did not falter; each time he was knocked down, he would come back stronger to hold onto his lead.