Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, on Friday, opened up on the unfortunate disqualification from the women's 50kg freestyle final at the Paris Olympics on August 7, in a lengthy social-media post, two days after her appeal for a joint silver medal was dismissed by Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Vinesh stood on the verge of history at the Paris Games, where she beat then-defending champion and world no. 1 Yui Susaki of Japan in her opener en route to becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach an Olympic final. However, she was found overweight by 100 grams during the weight-in ahead of the gold-medal bout, and hence was disqualified and denied a medal.
The 29-year-old from Haryana appealed to the CAS against the United World Wrestling (UWW) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a joint silver medal, but after a long wait, her plea was rejected on Wednesday in a decision by the Sole Arbitrator at the court.
On Friday, Vinesh opened up on the cruel turn of fate between the night of August 6 and the following morning. She said that she and her team did not give up until the last minute and rather failed to befriend time, thus leading to the disqualification.
"There is so much more to say and so much more to tell but words will never be enough and maybe I will speak again when the time feels right. On the night of 6th August and the morning of 7th August, all I want to say is that we did not give up, our efforts did not stop, and we did not surrender but the clock stopped and the time was not fair," she in a social media post.
{{/usCountry}}"There is so much more to say and so much more to tell but words will never be enough and maybe I will speak again when the time feels right. On the night of 6th August and the morning of 7th August, all I want to say is that we did not give up, our efforts did not stop, and we did not surrender but the clock stopped and the time was not fair," she in a social media post.
{{/usCountry}}According to reports, while Vinesh was well within the permissible limit of 50 kg on the morning of the preliminary rounds, she gained close to three kilos after three straight bouts on August 6.
The wrestler stayed awake all night, jogging and skipping, in a bid to lose the extra 2.7 kilos of weight, but were left in vain. Her team even went to the extent of cutting her hair and drawing out blood, but Vinesh was still found 100 grams over the permissible limit.