courtesy: firstpost
Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the women’s 50kg wrestling competition on Wednesday after she failed to make the weight cut ahead of the gold- medal match.
“Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning. No further comments will be made by the contingent at this time. The Indian team requests you respect Vinesh’s privacy. It would like to focus on the competitions on hand,” stated the Indian Olympic Association in a statement.
The Indian athlete was gearing up to take on USA’s Sara Ann Hildebrandt in the final later on Wednesday.
The latest development means that Vinesh will not be awarded silver medal either. As per the rules of weigh-in rules by United World Wrestling, “If an athlete does not attend or fail the weigh-in (the 1st or the 2nd weigh-in), he will be eliminated of the competition and ranked last, without rank.”
Speaking of the silver rank, no athlete will bag it. The medal is to go vacant and the podium for silver medal will remain empty.