Olympic Wrestling: Geeta overpowered in repechage round

Geeta Pogat failed to capitalise on her second opportunity after losing 3-0 to Tetyana Lazareva in the Repechage Round in the women’s 55kg Freestyle wrestling event at the London Games.

Lazareva dominated her Indian opponent in both rounds in which they competed, tallying scores of 8-0 and 1-0.

In the first round, the two wrestlers tried hard to bring the other down to the mat. Unfortunately for Phogat, it was her Ukrainian opponent who succeeded in doing so after taking down the Indian wrestler and exposing her back and shoulders to the mat. The points came in bundles as Lazareva wrapped up the first round in style. A massive 8 point lead to the Ukrainian.

The second round was more competitive as Phogat managed to bring her opponent down first. Sadly, Lazareva was able to reach the safe zone and no point was awarded to the Indian. This was where Phogat had to step up, but ultimately, it was the Ukrainian’s day as she brought the Indian down to the mat once again to score the solitary point of round two.

With a couple of takedowns a whole nation’s dreams and hopes came to a screeching halt as the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist ended her Olympic campaign on a dismal note. She failed to do what Sushil Kumar did four years ago. However, she became the first Indian woman wrestler to take part in the Olympics and she represented the country with great pride.

Earlier, Phogat lost to former Olympic champion Tonya Lynn Verbeek from Canada, 3-1 in the pre-quarters. Read more about it here