Wrestler Babita Kumari lost her opening bout in the women’s 53 kg category against Maria Prevolaraki of Greece, and with the latter’s defeat in the quarterfinals, was eliminated from the competition in the Olympic Games here on Thursday.
The 26-year-old Indian could not breach the tight defence put up by Prevolaraki, and lost points in both the periods of their pre-quarterfinal bout, to lose 5-1.
And when Prevolaraki lost to Venezuela’s Betzabeth Angelica Arguello Villegas in the quarterfinals, it spelt curtains for the Indian’s slim hopes of going through by via repechage.
In both three-minute periods, Babita got a leg hold on her rival but Prevolaraki somehow managed to extricate herself and turn the tables on the Indian grappler.
Prevolaraki took a 3-0 lead in the opening period — throwing Babita out of the safety zone to log her first point and then taking two for eluding the one-leg hold and getting behind the latter.
Babita got on the board thanks to the 30-second passivity rule coming into play against Prevolaraki, but that was all she got.
Babita then had the Greek in a double-leg hold but Prevolaraki wriggled out of that too and got behind Babita to bag two more points.
Trailing by four points, Babita needed to flip her rival down from a standing position to level scores. She made a brave attempt to pull it off but failed, and Prevolaraki won the bout to move into the quarter finals.
