In a stunning return to her near-best when the stakes were high and the margin of mistakes slim, Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat delivered a spectacular performance to earn a quota for the 2024 Paris Olympics. At the 2024 Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament, which is being held in Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek, Vinesh secured a win in the semi-final of the women’s freestyle 5kg category.
Vinesh had a flawless first game, where she defeated South Korea’s Cheon Miran 10-0 in the round of 16 tie. Then in the quarter-finals, she defeated Cambodia’s Dit Samnang via VFA (Victory by Fall), taking less than a minute to secure the win.
In the semi-final match, where a victory meant a Paris Olympics quota, Vinesh defeated Kazakhstan’s emerging 20-year-old talent. Laura Ganikyzy, by a 10-0 margin.
Notably, the category she competed in, 50kg, does not happen to be her preferred category. The two-time World Championships bronze medallist had won both of those honours in the 53kg category.
However, with Antim Panghal having already earned a quota in the 50kg category, courtesy of her bronze triumph at the 2023 World Championships, Vinesh had participated in both 50kg and 53kg categories at the National trials on 11 March. While she was defeated in the 53kg category by Railways’ Anju, Vinesh emerged victorious in the 53kg category, beating Shivani 11-6.
What makes her achievement more remarkable is that Vinesh had to miss much of the 2023 season, wherein she had first emerged as among the prominent faces in the protest against the former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and then, sustained a knee injury which ruled her out of the Asian Games. Prior to that, she also could not compete at the Polyàk Imre Memorial Ranking Series in Hungary owing to fever and food poisoning.
Anshu & Reetika Also Earn Quotas
Vinesh, however, was not the only female wrestler from India who secured an Olympics quota on Saturday (20 April). Anshu Malik, the 22-year-old who had won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and Reetika Hooda, a gold medallist at the U23 World Championships, also earned quotas.
Competing in the women’s 57kg freestyle category, Anshu first defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Kalmira Bilimbek Kyzy 12-1 in the quarter-final, before an 11-0 triumph over Uzbekistan’s Laylokhon Sobirova in the semi-final.
Meanwhile, Reetika, competing in the 76kg category, defeated all three competitors in her group – China’s Wang Juan, Mongolia’s Enkh-Amaryn Davaanasan and South Korea’s Hwang Eun-ju – to qualify for the semi-final. In the penultimate stage in her bracket, Reetika defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chang Hui-tsz.
Mansi & Nisha Miss Out
The two Indian grapplers who featured on Saturday and did not win quotas were Mansi Ahlawat and Nisha Dahiya. In the 62kg category, Mansi defeated Kazakhstan’s Irina Kuznetsova in the quarter-final, was was defeated by North Korea’s Mun Hyon-gyong in the semi-final.
Nisha, meanwhile, won two of the three bouts in her group of 68kg, beating North Korea’s Pak Sol-gum and Kazakhstan’s Yelena Shalygina. However, a defeat to Kyrgyzstan’s Meerin Zhumanazarova proved to be costly as she could not qualify for the semi-final.