Paris, Aug 7: An entire nation’s hopes were crushed under the weight of 100 grams.
With hours to go before Vinesh Phogat’s gold medal bout on Wednesday, she stood on the scales: the figures on the display were horrifying. For her 50kg category bout, she was 100gm overweight, leading to an automatic disqualification on perhaps the biggest day of her sporting career.
No amount of pleading by Indian officials to get some more time to shed those 100gm was going to change the rules and so that’s how it stayed, ending Vinesh’s tale of resilience at the Olympics.
She had scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the gold medal bout on Tuesday night and before this morning, she was assured of at least a silver medal.
But she will now be coming back empty-handed. The shattered 29-year-old had to be taken to the polyclinic inside the Games village due to severe dehydration earlier in the day.
“I met Vinesh at the Olympic Village Polyclinic a short while ago and assured her of complete support of the Indian Olympic Association, Government of India and the whole country. We are providing Vinesh all medical and emotional support,” Indian Olympic Association President P T Usha said in a statement after the stunning turn of events.
“The Wrestling Federation of India has filed an appeal to UWW to reconsider the decision to disqualify Vinesh and IOA is following that up in the strongest possible manner,” she added.
The protests and appeals can continue but the cold fact was that Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who lost to Vinesh in the semifinals, replaced her in the final.
Contingent’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala explained the process of weight cut and said that every possible trick was used to ensure that Vinesh could be within the prescribed limit.
“The process of weight cut involves a calculated restriction of food and water along with sweating from exercises and sauna till the morning weigh-in. This weight cut causes weakness and energy depletion, which is counter-productive to participation,” he said.
“…for energy restoration, limited water and high energy foods are given after weigh-in. Vinesh’s nutritionist had calculated this to be 1.5 kg. There sometimes is also a rebound weight gain following competition,” he added.
Pardiwala revealed that Vinesh had been merely given small amounts of water to prevent dehydration after three draining bouts on Tuesday. (PTI)
