Aman and his staff didn’t take any chances to ensure that he was inside the limit following Vinesh Phogat’s withdrawal due to his weight.
Aman Sehrawat needed to lose something before he could gain anything. Before stepping onto the mat for the bronze medal play-off on Thursday, Aman had a more challenging task when the scales on the weighing machine indicated 61.5 kg following his semifinal loss to eventual champion Rei Higuchi. Before the required second-day weigh-in, India’s youngest Olympic bronze medallist grappler had to lose 4.5 kg of bodyweight in a time limit of 10 hours in order to be eligible for the 57 kg match.
Aman, together with his coaches Jagmander Singh and Virender Dahiya, had successfully completed the objective by the time he woke up on the second morning’s weighing machine, having dropped 4.6 kg to make himself qualified for the bout at 56.9 kg.
The issue involved being precisely 100 grams below the crucial limit. If Vinesh Phogat saw 100 grams as a tragedy, Aman saw it as a comfort.
Around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aman had lost his semifinal matchup with Japan’s Rei Higuchi.
There was hardly a moment to linger.
The’mission’ started with a 1.5-hour mat session when the two senior coaches had him practice standing wrestling, and then there was a 1-hour hot-bath session after that.
They went to the gym at 12:30, where Aman ran nonstop for an hour on the treadmill. Losing weight would be aided by perspiration. He was subsequently given five sessions of five minutes each in the sauna, followed by a thirty-minute break.
Aman’s weight had increased by 900g by the conclusion of the previous session. After giving him a massage, the trainers had the Chhtrasal trainee perform a little jogging.
Five fifteen-minute running sessions ensued. Aman weighed 100g lighter at 4:30 am, or 56.9 kg. A sigh of relief was breathed by the wrestler and the coaches.
Aman was given lukewarm water with lemon and honey and a small amount of coffee to drink in between these sessions.Losing weight would be aided by perspiration. He was subsequently given five sessions of five minutes each in the sauna, followed by a thirty-minute break.
Aman’s weight had increased by 900g by the conclusion of the previous session. After giving him a massage, the trainers had the Chhtrasal trainee perform a little jogging.
Five fifteen-minute running sessions ensued. Aman weighed 100g lighter at 4:30 am, or 56.9 kg. A sigh of relief was breathed by the wrestler and the coaches.
Aman was given lukewarm water with lemon and honey and a small amount of coffee to drink in between these sessions.
After that, Aman would not go to sleep.
“I watched videos of wrestling bouts, the whole night.” “We continued to weigh him every hour. Coach Dahiya stated, “We didn’t sleep during the entire night or even during the day.
“Weight loss is customary and normal for us, but there was a great deal of stress because of what transpired the other day (with Vinesh).” We couldn’t let another medal to go,” Dahiya remarked.
After defeating Darian Cruz of Puerto Rico on Friday to win the bronze medal and become India’s youngest-ever Olympic medallist, all the hard work paid off.
