17-year old Aman wins bronze at Zagreb Open wrestling

Indian wrestler Aman Sehrawat clinched a bronze medal in the men’s 57kg category at the Zagreb Open Championships here on Thursday.

The 17-year-old Aman defeated Zane Raye Rhodes Richards of USA 10-4 on points in the bronze medal contest to finish on the podium of the ranking tournament.

Aliabbas Rzazade of Azerbaijan bagged the gold, beating Yuto Nishiuchi of Japan 2-0 in the final.

The other bronze was won by Beka Bujiashvili of Georgia, who beat Islam Bazarganov of Azerbaijan.

Aman had earlier defeated Roberti Dingashvili of Georgia in the quarterfinals, before losing to Nishiuchi in the semifinals, to qualify for the repechage round as his Japanese opponent went on to reach the final.

Another Indian Pruthviraj Babasaheb Patil (men’s 92kg) is in contention for another bronze as he will take on Gankhuyag Ganbaatar of Mongolia in the repechage round.

Patil had lost to Miriani Maisuradze of Georgia 10-0 in the semifinal. He had earlier defeated Radoslaw Marcinkiewicz of Poland 5-2 in the quarterfinals.

In the women’s 50kg, India’s Shivani Pawar crashed out in the quarterfinals after losing to USA’s Erin Simone Golston 4-0 on points.

India’s top eight wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya had opted out of the tournament, a decision which came following their revolt against Wrestling Federation of India and its chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

World championship medallist Deepak Punia (86kg), Anshu Malik (57kg), Sangeeta Phogat (62kg), Sarita Mor (59kg), Jitendra Kinha (79kg) have also opted out of the event.