Commonwealth Games 2018: Thanks to the Australian team, Mahavir Singh Phogat could witness daughter Babita Kumari's silver medal win in Gold Coast

What's the story?

Babita Phogat bagged the silver medal in Women's 53 kg freestyle wrestling at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. This was her third Commonwealth Games medal, following a silver in 51kg in Delhi in 2010, and a gold in Glasgow four years ago in 55kg.

Babita not only became the first Indian female wrestler to take part in three editions of CWG but also the first on to win a medal in all three editions.

However, Babita's father might have missed the historic moment, if not for a timely intervention by the Australian wrestling team.

In case you didn't know...

Previously, having won her first three bouts of the day, against Bose Samuel of Nigeria, Deepika Dilhani of Sri Lanka and Carissa Holland of Australia, Babita was a favourite to bag the gold. Two of the three wins were via pinfall. However, in her final bout, Canada's Daniel Weicker began strongly.

Weicker took an early 1-0 lead in the first round as Babita was docked a point for passivity. In the end, it was the Canadian's stronger defence that helped her win the bout as she managed to successfully take points off Babita whenever she tried to attack.

The heart of the matter

Babita's father Mahavir Singh Phogat, on whom the movie Dangal is loosely based, had travelled all the way from India to Australia to watch his daughter in action. But he could not acquire tickets and was left stranded outside the stadium for the entire day.

Eventually, Babita managed to borrow tickets from the Australian team and give them to her father.

My father travelled all the way from India to Australia to watch this bout but he was waiting outside the entire day today because he had no tickets. Finally I borrowed tickets from the Australian team for him: Babita Kumari @GC2018

— Susan Ninan (@ninansusan) April 12, 2018

What's next?

Having bagged the silver at the CWG, Babita's next target would be to clinch a medal at the Asian Games and then, go ahead and do the country and her father proud at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Author's take

The entire ticket-episode could have had an adverse effect on Babita's performance today. She might have won the silver medal, but she was a favourite to win the gold. Nevertheless, it was to win three medals at three different editions is an incredible achievement in itself.