Paris: India endured one of its most tumultuous and disappointing days in the ongoing Olympic Games here after Vinesh Phogat lost a sure-shot medal owing
Paris: India endured one of its most tumultuous and disappointing days in the ongoing Olympic Games here after Vinesh Phogat lost a sure-shot medal owing to disqualification, fellow wrestler Antim Panghal found herself in a soup following a disciplinary breach and celebrated weightlifter Mirabai Chanu ended medal-less.
Adding to the woes was the consistently poor show by the country’s track-and-field contingent which seems to be banking solely on defending javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra to deliver a medal.
Chopra will aim for a historic second Olympic gold on Thursday evening after topping the qualification on Tuesday.
The country’s medal tally remained at three, all bronze secured by the shooters.
The biggest heartbreak of the day was Vinesh, who was disqualified ahead of her summit clash against American Sarah Ann Hildebrandt after being found 100gm overweight at the morning weigh-in.
The devastated 29-year-old has appealed against the decision and demanded that she be considered for a joint silver after being replaced in the final by Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who lost to her in the semifinals.
Lopez lost to Hildebrandt in the final.
Tokyo Olympics silver-medallist Mirabai’s fourth-place finish in the 49kg division was another dampener as she failed to be anywhere close to her best in the field.
Mirabai lifted a total of 199kg (88kg+111kg) at the South Paris Arena, which was 3kg less than what she heaved at the Tokyo Olympics — 202 kg for a silver medal.
She could manage only three valid lifts out of six attempts and two of these came in the clean and jerk section.
