CHANDIGARH:
Commonwealth Games
gold medallist Babita Phogat isn’t impressed with the way her cousin and star grappler
Vinesh Phogat approached her bout at the
Tokyo Olympics
on Thursday.
Vinesh’s hopes of winning an Olympic medal were dashed after she lost the quarterfinal bout of women’s freestyle 53kg event to Belarus’
Vanesa Kaladzinskaya
. Earlier, Vinesh had qualified for the quarterfinals after defeating Sweden’s Sofia Magdalena Mattsson 7-1 in the 1/8 finals.
Vanesa won against the 26-year-old Indian by pinning her on the mat (victory by fall). The number one seeded Indian came under early pressure in the bout as the Belarusian took an early lead by 2-0. Later, Vanesa lost her semi-final to China's Qinyu Pang on criteria after scores were tied 2-2, a result that brought curtains on Vinesh’s campaign at the Tokyo Games.
Shocked at Vinesh’s exit from the Games, Babita felt Vinesh was a bit disturbed and missed that spark.
“We had never seen a match like this before. I don’t know for sure what was going on her mind at the time. She seemed a bit disturbed. It is very rare that she fights like the way she did today. She has never performed like this in the past. Not sure if the body didn’t function well or what happened,” Babita told TOI.
She adds, “Looking at her bout, it seemed that something was missing for sure. We all were confident that she will win the match easily despite when she was trailing but we all were shocked when she lost. The way she attacks, fights, I think her fighting spirit was missing. This was not the way she usually fights.”
Exuding confidence in Vinesh, Babita said that she will bounce back in the next Olympics, and will only get better from here.
“She will 100 percent participate in the next
Olympics
and will continue to wrestle and take part in different championships,” she said.
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