Vinesh Phogat has stormed to the Semi-Finals of Paris Olympics after beating Ukrainian Oksana Livach in the Quarterfinals of Women’s 50K Free Style. Phogat had to be resilient towards the end as she prevailed to a 7-5 win.
In earlier game, Vinesh Phogat pulled off the biggest upset at the Paris Olympics by outwitting hitherto invincible Yui Susaki, executing a perfectly-planned strategy to come out a surprise winner in the women’s 50kg opening round.
The Tokyo Games gold medallist and four-time World Champion Susaki had not lost any of her 94 bouts in her international career but the Japanese top seed didn’t know what was going to hit her in her opener which she lost 2-3.
Former European champion and 2018 world championship bronze-medallist Oksana Livach of Ukraine will be Vinesh’s next opponent later in the day.
Thrown in at the deep end, Vinesh came out with a strategy to look for that one attack in the dying moments and pulled that off successfully.
There was no action for first 90 seconds as the two wrestlers measured each other. Vinesh was warned for passivity and lost the first point.
The first period past and in the second one too neither Vinesh nor Susaki made any decisive moves for the longest time.
Vinesh lost one more point for passivity to trail 0-2.
With just 18 seconds left in the bout, both Vinesh and Susaki began to look for that one winning move.
Vinesh looked to grab the left leg of the Japanese from but could not do it from the standing position.
Less than 9 seconds to go, Vinesh capitalised when Susaki did not have her feet placed on the mat firmly and managed to push her for a takedown.
Vinesh knew what she had achieved by felling the reigning Olympic and four time world champion.
She first jumped in the air then fell on the mat, cried and hugged her Belgian coach Woller Akos. The Japanese corner challenged but it was unsuccessful.
After enduring two Olympics heartbreaks, Vinesh dropped down to women’s 50kg for the Paris Games.
No one gave her a chance but she did what was unthinkable. Prior to the Games, Vinesh had competed in the Spanish Grand Prix , emerging winner in a field that did not have top wrestlers, yet it gave her valuable mat time.
She missed training in most of the 2023 season due to a protest against then WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Vinesh was a prominent face of the protest, during which she spent nights on the Jantar Mantar roads.
Nisha Dahiya had already exited the competition in the women’s 68kg on Monday after a shoulder injury resulted in quarterfinal defeat.
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