How Aman Sehrawat shed 4.6 kg in 10 hours before his bronze medal playoff at Paris Olympics 2024?

New Delhi: Aman Sehrawat, India’s new wrestling sensation who bagged a bronze medal on Friday at the Paris Olympics 2024 in the men’s freestyle 57kg event, had to undertake an arduous training routine hours before his medal bout. It was a pure give-and-take affair as the Haryana wrestler could only lay his hands on the medal after draining himself out in the build-up of the playoff match.

With two wins on the bounce in the pre-quarterfinal and the quarterfinal, Sehrawat suffered a defeat against Japan’s Rei Higuchi in the semifinal on Thursday. After the loss, when he stood on the weighing machine, the scales showed 61.5 kg, which was a sign to quickly shed his weight in order to qualify for the bout and take the mat on Friday.

Sehrawat, who became India’s youngest Olympic champion after defeating Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz 13-5, had the task of shedding 4.5 kilograms of body weight in a stipulated time of 10 hours before the mandatory second-day weigh-in to qualify for the 57 kg bout. By the time Aman stepped on the weighing machine on the morning of the match day, he along with his coaches Jagmander Singh and Virender Dahiya had successfully accomplished the mission.

The scales took a halt at 56.9 kg, making Sehrawat eligible for the bronze medal fight. This reduction of 4.6 kgs in a mere 10 hours wasn’t surely a cakewalk for Sehrawat and his coaches either.

How did Aman Sehrawat accomplish the ‘mission’?

Unlike Vinesh Phogat, who was disqualified for being 100 grams overweight days before, the exact numbers were relieving for Sehrawat. When on Thursday, he lost his semifinal bout against Higuchi around 6:30 pm, there was no time to waste. The mission took off with a one-and-a-half-hour mat session involving his two senior coaches who engaged him in standing wrestling. A one-hour hot-bath session came up next for the 21-year-old.

They hit the gym at around 12:30 where Aman ran non-stop for an hour on the treadmill. For those unversed, sweating out your body helps in cutting weight. He was then given half an hour of break which was followed by five sessions of sauna bath, each for five minutes. By the end of the last session, Aman still weighed 900 grams more. He was given a clear message as his coaches asked him to do light jogging.

After the jogs, he went through five running sessions of 15 minutes each. By 4:30 am, Sehrawat was weighing 56.9kg – 100 grams less than the critical limit, as the trio took a sigh of relief. In between the sessions, Sehrawat was taking lukewarm water with lemon and honey and a bot of coffee as well which kept him awake throughout the gruelling night.

I watched videos of wrestling bouts, the whole night. We kept checking his weight every hour. We didn’t sleep the whole night, not even during the day, said coach Dahiya. “Weight cutting is routine, normal for us but there was tension, a lot of tension due to what happened the other day (with Vinesh). We could not let slip another medal,” Dahiya added.

Sehrawat and his coaches’ dedication and hard work finally bore them fruits as he stood on the podium posing for the camera while having a bite of the bronze metal, his maiden Olympic medal in his first-ever Games outing.

Vinesh’s case

Unlike Sehrawat, Vinesh was qualified for the gold medal match after being on a rampant run of three wins on the trot – the pre-quarterfinal, quarterfinal, and the semifinal. She first delivered a major upset by defeating the defending champion and went on to down her next two opponents to storm into the finals of the event. However, on the second day of weigh-in, she was deemed 100 grams overweight which led to the organisers disqualifying her from the final match.

Vinesh, too tried hard to get within the weighing ranges of the category in which she competes i.e. 50kg but ultimately couldn’t do it. It is understood that each athlete has a different body, stamina, and immunity which works for some but some have to face the wrath of the rules, which turned out to be Vinesh’s case.

The 29-year-old challenged the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), filing two appeals – one for getting to play the final match which was rejected, and a second plea demanding she be given a joint silver medal which was accepted by the CAS. The court held the hearing on Friday as Vinesh was represented by high-profile senior advocates Harish Salve and Vidushpat Singhania. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) stated that it is hopeful of a positive resolution as the verdict will likely be out before the conclusion of the Paris Games 2024 on Sunday, August 11.

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 Aman Sehrawat clinched a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics 2024, notably after going through arduous training sessions in order to shed his weight to be eligible for the medal match and escaping an infamous fate.  Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today