Kaladzinskaya's loss meant bad news for Phogat as she would have had a chance in repechage had the Belarusian reached the final.
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India’s hopes of increasing their medals tally at the Tokyo Olympics took a major hit on Thursday as wrestler Vinesh Phogat crashed out of the women’s freestyle 53kg event in the 1/4 final stage. Phogat was beaten by Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus and it was a pretty comprehensive defeat. The Indian wrestler would have gotten another chance in repechage if the Belarusian wrestler made it to the final. However, she was defeated in the semi-final by China’s Pang Quiyan. Phogat was one of the medal hopefuls of India. She might have won a medal at the 2016 Games in Rio had she not suffered a horrible injury midway through the competition.
Despite the Indian wrestler being one of the likelier Indians to win a medal, she was beaten comprehensively by Kaladzinskaya. The scoreline at the end of the match was 9-3 in the Belarusian’s favor. She did not need the points to win, however. Kaladzinskaya won the match via fall. This means that she had wrestled the Indian wrestler’s shoulders to the mat.
Phogat only scored two technical points in the first period and just one in the second. Her opponent, on the other hand, scored five technical points in the first period and four in the second. The Belarusian could not take her form to the semi-final, however. She was beaten by Quiyan in what was a very tightly contested encounter. The score at the end was 2-2. The Chinese grappler won by VPO1, which means victory by points with point(s) scored by the opponent. The win meant bad news for Phogat as she would have had a chance in repechage had the Belarusian grappler reached the final.
As per the international wrestling rules laid down by United World Wrestling, a VPO1 situation occurs when a bout ends with a victory by points at the end of the regular time, and the one who lost scores one or more technical points. In such a scenario, three points are awarded to the winner and one to the loser. That was the condition by which Quiyan defeated Kaladzinskaya.
For Phogat, it is yet another setback at the Olympics. Many were of the opinion that she would have bagged at least the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. There was weight behind those claims. Her performances at the time were nothing short of masterful and dominating. She suffered the worst possible injury for an athlete, an ACL tear, while she was competing at the 2016 Games. After that incident, Phogat struggled with both her physical and mental health for quite a while.
However, a proud member of the illustrious Phogat family, she made a brilliant comeback. The wrestler became the first Indian to win gold medals in both the Asian and the Commonwealth Games. Heading into this Olympics, she was one of the top-seeded wrestlers of the world. It would be safe to say that she had a better chance of winning a medal at the Tokyo Olympics than she had in London. Therefore, one can certainly hope that she will come back from this setback even stronger.
