Indian women wrestlers — Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik — crossed the first hurdle by registering contrasting victories in their respective weight divisions in the Rio Olympic Games on Wednesday.
It was an easy outing for Vinesh in 48kg category as she thrashed Emilia Alina Vuc of Romania 11-0 by technical superiority to enter the quarterfinals.
In contrast, Sakshi came back from 0-4 down to post an impressive 5-4 win over her Swedish opponent —— Johanna Mattsson to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of 58kg category.
Sakshi was the first to take the mat and was quick to go down in the first period conceding four points to her Swedish rival.
The 23-year-old grappler, however, made amends in the second period as she managed to pull two points back. She grabbed another opportunity by pushing her rival out of the mat, which gave her just one more point.
With just 10 seconds remaining, Sakshi desperately needed another point and she scored a takedown in those dying moments to register a narrow victory.
However, Vinesh did not have to break much sweat to get the better of her Romanian rival.
Although she twisted her right elbow in the first 20 seconds of the bout, Vinesh did not let that bother her.
The 21-year-old got into action and without wasting any time flipped Vuc to bag four points. With her opponent struggling, Vinesh earned two more points with yet another take down to take a 6-0 lead at the end of the first period.
In the second period, she displayed some very good defensive technique and never let the Romanian get around her.
Vinesh then pushed Vuc on to the mat to get another four points and wrap up the match in style in 5.01 minutes.
The Romanian team asked for a referral but Vinesh’s four points were retained.
