Paris: On Wednesday morning, Vinesh Phogat weighed “a few grams over” the allowed limits, which resulted in her disqualification from the women’s 50kg wrestling competition at the Paris Olympics. This will be a huge blow for Indian wrestling.
“It is with regret that the Indian contingent shares news of the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from the Women’s Wrestling 50kg class. Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning. No further comments will be made by the contingent at this time. The Indian team requests you respect Vinesh’s privacy. It would like to focus on the competitions on hand,” the Indian Olympic Association said.
Moreover, the Indian grappler will be placed last in the as per UWW rules.
Vinesh became the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the final of an Olympic Games on Tuesday after she defeated Cuba’s Yusneylys Guzman 5-0 in the semifinal.
She started her campaign by stunning world No. 1, Japan’s four-time World Champion and Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Yui Susaki. In her entire career as a wrestler, Susaki was undefeated in 95 international matches.
Vinesh then advanced to her maiden semifinals after beating Ukraine’s Oksana Vasylivna Livach 7-5 in her second bout of the day.
A former World No.1 in 48kg, Vinesh was participating in her third Olympics. She missed out on a medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics because of an injury. She lost to Vanesa Kaladzinskaya in the 53kg quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Vinesh is also the first Indian woman to have won gold at both the Commonwealth and Asian Games.
–IANS
