Screensaver turns actual: Aman Sehrawat’s gold on telephone now round his neck

NEW DELHI: For months, Aman Sehrawat had carried an image of the Asian Games gold medal on his telephone. It was greater than a wallpaper; it was a each day reminder of the color he wished after coming back from Hangzhou with bronze. On Saturday, after beating North Korea’s reigning globe champion Han Chong Song 11-7 within the 57kg last, Sehrawat checked out the actual medal, bit it, and allowed himself a second of disbelief. The image had develop into actuality.The highway to it had not been easy. A lower beneath his left eye left him bruised through the bout, however not distracted. Han surged again from 1-6 to steer 7-6, but Sehrawat answered with two takedowns, regained management and closed out the comeback. Earlier, he had overwhelmed Japan’s Yamato Ogawa 20-9, Kazakhstan’s Nurdanat Aitanov 12-1 and Tajikistan’s Aiaal Belolyubskii 14-8.The gold additionally carries a tough lesson. Last 12 months, Sehrawat was eradicated from the World Championships after weighing 1.7kg over the 57kg restrict, which led to a one-year suspension from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The ban was later lifted after he apologised. He competed at 61kg within the Zagreb Open and Asian Championships, taking silver at each, earlier than returning to 57kg and successful the Budapest Ranking Series occasion forward of the Games.Weight had develop into a tough proportion to handle, however that self-discipline made Saturday sweeter. Sehrawat, now 23, is already a U-23 globe champion, a Paris Olympic bronze medallist and a Hangzhou bronze medallist. Now he has added the continental crown and upgraded his Asian Games color from bronze to gold.Sehrawat’s wrestling journey started in far darker circumstances. He misplaced his mom at 10 and his father a 12 months later, leaving him orphaned at 11. His maternal uncles stepped in, introduced him to Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium and set him on a path from grief to objective. Under coach Lalit Kumar, the boy from Haryana grew to become a stable wrestler with a power to reckon with.India’s exceptional wrestling marketing campaign on the ongoing version grew to become even sweeter, and historic as properly, after Antim Panghal’s silver in girls’s 53kg and Deepak Punia’s bronze in males’s 97kg took the nation’s tally to 6 wrestling medals — two gold, two silver and two bronze. It was the nation’s greatest Asian Games haul in 64 years. The final time India collected extra was Jakarta in 1962, with 12 medals.Antim, a Hangzhou bronze medallist, reached the ultimate of her weight division hoping to develop into solely the second Indian girl after Vinesh Phogat to win Asian Games wrestling gold. Japan’s Moe Kiyooka, nevertheless, proved too sharp, controlling the competition and successful 9-1. Antim’s silver nonetheless underlined a robust marketing campaign, although gold remained past attain.Punia added bronze after edging Mongolia’s Gankhuyag Ganbaatar 2-1 within the medal-deciding repechage bout. He had overwhelmed China’s Zhou Junpeng 12-2 earlier than a quarterfinal walkover, then misplaced an 8-9 semifinal to Uzbekistan’s Sherzod Poyonov. He recovered to complete on the rostrum.For Indian wrestling, Nagoya ended with a powerful haul. For Sehrawat, it ended with one thing extra private: a wallpaper, a promise and, lastly, the gold he had spent months imagining.