Paris, Aug 6: Vinesh Phogat (50kg) became the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the final of the Olympic Games with a convincing 5-0 win over Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez here on Tuesday.
With this win in the semifinal, Vinesh guaranteed herself at least a silver medal.
Both wrestlers got off to a cautious start but a passivity clock on Lopez meant that Vinesh got on the board with one technical point after the Cuban didn’t take a risk.
Vinesh was leading 1-0 at the end of the first period.
She extended her dominance in the second period with four more points to seal the bout in her favour.
Earlier, Vinesh entered the semifinals on the back of two incredible wins, against reigning Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan and Ukraine’s eighth seed Oksana Livach on a memorable day for the combative Indian grappler.She faced a quarter-final exit in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 editions. Months before her long-cherished dream of winning an Olympic medal turned into reality, Vinesh Phogat was furious, but unwavering in the face of intimidation, police detention, backlash from a protest she was spearheading, and a smear campaign that sought to portray her in a negative light.
Instead of sinking into a miasma of despair, she unloaded on her detractors a torrent of angry responses, something that proved to be a blessing in disguise as she became India’s first woman wrestler to reach the finals of the Olympics after two failed attempts over 12 years.
All along that tumultuous phase, she was convinced that her fight was just and in that, she prevailed too.
Then, as she trained her sights on booking a ticket to the Paris Olympics, a new set of challenges stared her in the eye, as if telling her to leave the scene for good.
She had to drop down to 50kg after competing in 53kg for more than five years, there were multiple issues with her trial bouts ahead the Olympic qualifiers, and then there was also the small matter of going through a knee surgery, years after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear at the 2016 Rio Olympics nearly ended her career. (PTI)
