India’s lone judoka Avtar Singh crashes out of Rio Olympics

South Asian Games gold medallist was India’s only participant in Judo.

Avtar Singh, India’s sole judoka in ongoing Rio Olympics, was knocked out of the prestigious games after suffering a defeat at the hands of Misenga Popole of the Refugee Olympic Team in the Men’s 90 kg elimination round-of-32 here on Wednesday.

Avtar Singh in action against Popole Misenga of the Refugee Olympic Athletes compete. (REUTERS)

The 24-year-old, who lost the match by the move yuko to Popole, was the first Indian judoka to have qualified for the Olympics since 2004.

Besides winning the gold medal in the South Asian Games (SAG) in Shillong in February, Avtar had also bagged the bronze in Asian Junior Judo Championships in 2011.

Avtar, who hails from Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, also went up to the Round of 16 in the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow.

Avtar, who also won gold medals in senior national judo championships in 2013-14 and 2014-15, managed to finish at fifth place in the Asian judo championships in April in Uzbekistan after beating judokas from China and Iran.