Paris Olympics: Wrestler Reetika Hooda to face Bernadett Nagy of Hungary in women’s freestyle 76kg event today

At the Paris Olympics, Indian wrestler Aman Sehrawat produced a dominating performance last evening to clinch a bronze medal in the Men’s 57kg freestyle event. Sehrawat defeated Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz 13-5. This was India’s sixth medal at the Paris Games, and the first in wrestling. With this outcome, Aman helped India carry forward the streak of winning a wrestling medal at Olympics since 2008. The grappler showed immense promise with commanding performances, helping him storm into the semifinals. However, 

The 21-year-old from Haryana was outmuscled in the semifinal by Japan’s Rei Higuchi and lost the bout 0-10 via technical superiority. Sehrawat started his campaign with a 10-0 win against North Macedonia’s Vladimir Egorov, following which he secured a 12-0 win, once again by technical superiority, against Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania in the quarterfinal. Aman has also surpassed PV Sindhu’s record to become India’s youngest medal winner, at 21 years and 24 days old. India now have five bronze medals and a silver. Notably, Sehrawat was India’s only male wrestler in the Paris Olympics.

Meanwhile, India’s last remaining contender at the Games, wrestler Reetika Hooda will begin her campaign in the women’s freestyle 76kg event today. The 22-year-old will face Bernadett Nagy of Hungary in her opening round. The action begins at 2:30 PM Indian Standard Time.

In Golf, Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar, who did not have the best of outings yesterday, will feature in the final round of the women’s event today. Aditi, dropped 26 places in the



third round to be placed at T40 while Diksha slipped further down the order to T42. The Indian women golfers will be in action in the fourth round from 12:30 PM IST onwards.

Wrestler Aman Sehrawat made it three medals in two days for India yesterday when he dominated Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz to clinch bronze by a score of 13-5 in the 57kg freestyle category. Aman, 21, became the youngest ever individual Olympic medalist from India in the process, surpassing PV Sindhu. Neeraj Chopra had unleashed the second best throw of his career to win javelin silver and the hockey team had managed consecutive bronze medals at the Olympics the day before with India’s medal count going up to six through the latest victories.

Meanwhile, the 4×400 men’s and women’s relay teams failed to find their feet, despite the men managing a season’s best time, and did not make it to the finals. Aman is the first wrestler from India to claim a medal at these Olympics and today Reetika Hooda will aim to win the second in a sport in which the country has got the most success at the quadrennial Games after hockey. She will be featuring in the 76 kg freestyle category. Golfers Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar, down to the 40th and 42nd places, respectively after poor rounds yesterday, will also turn out in the fourth round. The Indian Olympic Association remains hopeful of a positive resolution to Vinesh Phogat’s application to the Court of Arbitration for Sports against her disqualification. The operative part of the order might be made available soon.