New Delhi: The last four months have been rather surreal for wrestler Aman Sehrawat. Since becoming India’s youngest Olympic medallist (at 21 years and 24 days) after beating Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz in a bronze playoff in August, the soft-spoken youngster was under unrelenting spotlight, which included receptions, an audience with the Prime Minister and an appearance on the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati.
With the Paris high subsiding and athletes slowing returning to training, Sehrawat has left for Japan to sharpen his wrestling nous. Based in the renowned Nippon Sport Science University in Yokohama for a short stint, Sehrawat hopes to spar with Paris Olympics gold medallist Rei Higuchi, who handed him a 10-0 thrashing in the Olympics semi-final.
Sehrawat is expected to train there till early December, following which he is expected to leave for Dagestan, Russia for another training stint.
“We were planning to send Aman to Japan early in November but a visa delay meant he could only leave earlier this week. He is still settling in; the idea is to spend some time with Higuchi and his coach,” said Lalit Kumar, Sehrawat’s coach at Delhi’s Chhatarsal Stadium.
The Yokohama facility has long been the conveyor belt of quality Japanese wrestlers, especially in the lower weight divisions, and Indian wrestlers have been keen to train there. The women’s two-time Olympian Anshu Malik had two stints at the invitation-only centre earlier this year, the second in the lead-up to Paris during which she trained with Japan’s four-time 50kg world champion Yui Sasaki and two-time defending world champion Akari Fujinami (53kg).
The humbling loss in Paris, his coach says, had been playing on Sehrawat’s mind and he is keen on understanding the style and strengths of the Japanese wrestlers. “Aman was outplayed by Higuchi and the loss rankled him a lot. He wanted to have a closer look at their training methods to understand their game, so when the opportunity arrived he wanted to grab it,” Kumar said.
“He has trained in Europe, Russia and US before and has grown with each exposure. We hope the trend continues with this Japan trip.”
In Yokohama, Sehrawat will be joined by his sparring partner Sagar. While Kumar could not travel with his ward, he keeps tab through regular video calls.
“There is no competition coming up anytime soon, so now is the best time to train, regain strength and get back into shape. The 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is firmly in our radar. Aman is determined to change the colour of his medal there,” Kumar said.
