Vinesh Phogat suffered a upset defeat at the Tokyo Olympics after being pinned by Belarus’ Vanesa Kaladzinskaya in the women’s 53kg freestyle wrestling quarterfinals on Thursday.
Phogat had no answer to the supreme defence of Kaladzinskaya, who got her revenge from the Indian at the biggest stage after suffering a similar defeat ‘by fall’ earlier this year in Ukraine.
Kaladzinskaya, the reigning European champion, executed her strategy perfectly as Phogat could not find a way to wriggle out of her headlocks. That rattled the top seed, who is one of the strongest wrestlers in her category.
Even when Phogat got behind Kaladzinskaya, she could not push her down on the knees from a favourable position with the Belarusian showing immense strength to keep her legs straight.
The Indian used all her might but Kaladzinskaya’s defence would not crumble. Even the famous double-leg attack that Phogat has used to get herself into position to pin her rivals, did not result in points.
Later, the Belrusian lost her semi-final to China’s Qinyu Pang on criteria after scores were tied 2-2, a result that brought curtains on Phogat’s campaign at the Tokyo Games.
The top-seed, who was a hot favourite for a medal, needed Kaladzinskaya to beat the Chinese to rejoin the 53kg competition through the repechage round and push for a bronze.
Phogat had suffered a quarterfinal defeat at the Rio Games, where she also endured a leg injury and was stretchered out of the mat.
Before this bout, Vinesh had knocked out Rio Olympics bronze-winner and six-time world medallist Sofia Mattsson with a commanding 7-1 win. She had beaten the Swede at the 2019 World Championship as well.
Every time Mattsson initiated a right-leg attack, Phogat produced a splendid counter to score points. The Indian maintained the intensity throughout and even got herself into a position for a pin but the Swede escaped the embarrassment.
Earlier, young Anshu Malik bowed out of the 57kg competition after losing her repechage round 1-5 to Russia’s Valeria Koblova, the Rio Olympics silver medallist.
Malik was leading the bout at one stage on criteria but towards the end, the Russian pulled off a two-pointer to nose ahead.
The 19-year-old Indian had lost her opener to European champion Irina Kurachikina but after the Belarusian progressed to the final, she bounced back to be in contention.
With PTI Inputs
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