File photo of woman wrestler Antim Panghal.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
Two Indian wrestlers, Antim Panghal (53kg) and Aman Sehrawat (57kg), have been seeded for the upcoming Paris Olympics.
The seeding of top eight wrestlers (who accumulated points in the 2023 World championships and 2024 continental championships and Zagreb Open and Hungarian ranking series) in each weight class has been released by the United World Wrestling (UWW) for the first time for the Olympics.
World championships bronze medallist Antim has been seeded fourth. She will be clubbed with top-seeded Lucia Yepez Guzman of Ecuador, fifth-seeded Maria Prevolaraki of Greece, eighth-seeded Andreea Ana of Romania in the top half of the draw.
In effect, she will not meet Sweden’s two-time European champion Emma Malmgren (second seed), Japan’s Asian Games champion Akari Fujinami (third), Nigeria’s African champion Christianha Ogunsanya (sixth) and China’s Asian Games silver medallist Qianyu Pang (seventh) before the final.
In recent times, Antim lost to Emma (in the Budapest Ranking Series final in June) and Akari (in Asian Games and Asian championships last year).
Sehrawat, an Asian Games bronze medallist, will have a tougher draw. He will be in the bottom half of the 57kg draw with Japan’s 2016 Olympic silver medallist and former World champion Rei Higuchi, Armenia’s three-time Worlds bronze medallist Arsen Harutyunyan and China’s Wanhao Zou.
World champion Stevan Micic of Serbia, Asian bronze medallist Meirambek Kartbay of Kazakhstan, former World champion Zelimkhan Abkarov of Albania and Tokyo Olympian and Yasar Dogu ranking series silver medallist Gullomjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan will be on the top half of the draw.
Other Indians, including two-time Worlds bronze medallist Vinesh Phogat (who has dropped down to 50kg), 2021 Worlds silver medallist Anshu Malik (57kg), Asian silver medallist Nisha Dahiya (68kg) and World under-23 champion Reetika Hooda, who have been unseeded, will be randomly drawn into brackets before the competition begins in Paris.