It was a show of bittersweet fortunes for India's female wrestlers at the Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro as Sakshi Malik won her second contest while Vinesh Phogat crashed out due to a shock injury.
First up in action was Sakshi Malik taking on Mariana Cherdivara Esanu of Moldova in the Round of 16 of Women's 58 kg freestyle wrestling. The battle of the two 23-year-olds promised to be an evenly poised one, with the Moldovan having won her first match against Ecuadorian Lissette Antes via an easy 3-0 scoreline.
After a nail-biting contest against Johanna Mattsson of Sweden in her qualifiers that saw her overcome a 4-point gap to secure the bout 5-4 right at the death, Sakshi was certainly looking to stretch forward the momentum to find a place in the last eight stage of her category. But Mariana had other ideas as she went 3-0 up in the very second minute, leaving all the catching up for Malik to do.
A lead which seemed very difficult to chase down, particularly because of the precision with which Mariana had resisted in the 1st period, suddenly looked within reach early into the 2nd period when the Moldovan picked up a passivity warning and had to attack Sakshi within 30 seconds. The defiant Indian capitalised on the opportunity to score her 1st point by holding her opponent off throughout the half-minute penalty window, and followed it up with a fantastic 4-point takedown of Mariana onto the mat.
Leading 5-4 with less than a minute on the clock, Mariana earned her 5th point which brought them back even, but that proved insufficient as her Indian rival won the contest by virtue of the higher scoring move that she'd executed in the 2nd period. With this victory, Sakshi progressed to the last eight where she will square off against Valeriia Koblova of Russia for a semi-final spot.
At the other end, it was another heartbreak for the Indian contingent as their biggest medal hope in women's wrestling, Vinesh Phogat, suffered a devastating injury to her right knee just 2 minutes into her quarter-final match against China's Sun Yanan.
Leading 1-0, Vinesh faced a takedown attempt from Yanan which led to an ugly twist of the right leg, and which earned the latter two points before the injury could even be noticed. Helplessly grimacing in pain, the Glasgow Commonwealth gold medallist had to forfeit the contest as the stretcher was brought out to carry her off the centre after heavily strapping up her affected leg.
This is a very disappointing end to Vinesh's campaign, as she seemed in pole position to get into the medal round before disaster struck. All Indian fans would be hoping that she recovers soon, and is fit and raring to fight in the upcoming events.
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