Rohtak-born Sakshi Malik secured a stunning victory in her first bout at the Rio Olympics 2016. Taking on the former World No. 3 Johanna Mattsson of Sweden, the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth silver medallist overturned a 4-point deficit in the dying seconds to win the Women’s freestyle 58kg Qualification clash 5-4 and progress to the Round of 16.
Sakshi will now face Mariana Cherdivara Esanu of Moldova who had earlier eased past Lissette Antes of Ecuador with a convincing 3-0 scoreline. Immediately as Mariana's bout got over, Sakshi came out to the centre of Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro to kickstart India's female wrestlers' Rio 2016 campaign.
Trending
The beginning moments weren't favourable for Malik as she picked up a warning for making an illegal move which was followed by a quick couple of points for Mattsson within the very first minute. As grapplers vied for an opening against each other, Sakshi conceded another double before the end of the first half which took the scoreline to 4-0 in favour of the Swedish wrestler at half-time.
What looked to be a heavily intimidating situation at the interval saw an improvement within 8 seconds of the 2nd half when Malik grabbed Mattsson and pushed her outside the ring that opened her account with two points. With a minute left on the clock, she managed to sent the Swedish out of the ring once again, but this time Johanna stayed on her feet to keep the conceded point at 1.
Trailing 4-3 with under 10 seconds left on the clock, Sakshi turned it on against the World No. 3 to accomplish a fabulous takedown that fetched her a decisive double, pushing her above Johanna to 5-4 as the final whistle was blown to signal the end of the match.Sakshi pulled off a brilliant comeback to win her opening fixture 5-4 and provide a much-needed winning start to the female wrestling contingent at the Rio Olympics 2016.
Vinesh Phogat waltzes into the quarter-finals
Vinesh Phogat made little work of her Romanian opponent Emilia Alinia Vuc, defeating her by Greater Superiority.Emilia Alina
The bout, however, didn’t get off to the best of starts as Vinesh suffered an injury to the elbow as she was going for a single leg hold in the opening 20 seconds. However, after some medical attention, the Indian was deemed fit to continue.
After a dour first 40 seconds or so, the fight really spiked ino action just as the clock was about to hit the 1-minute mark. Vinesh opened the scoring at the 59-second mark as she managed to get behind the Romanian a gut wrench helped her score the opening 2 points.
The lead was further stretched within a few seconds as another couple of points went up for Vinesh as she rolled her opponent over to make the lead 4-0. The 21-year-old Indian finished the first half on a high not as another couple of points was awarded at the 2-minute 30-second mark. And that's how the score stood at halftime as Vinesh clearly had a measure of her opponent.
The second period started on a quite note but with the clock striking 4 minutes, Phogat nearly got the single leg tackle. But she couldn't hold on to increase her lead. However, she didn’t have to wait for too long. Phogat got her another four points as she struck her opponent’s back on the mat. Although she failed to pin her, the 4 points helped increase her lead to 10-0, which meant that she was awarded the victory by Technical superiority .
The final score was 11-0 as the Romanian was penalised for their referral bring turned down.
Vinesh Phogat will now square off against Sun Yanan of China for a place in the semi-finals of the 48kg freestyle category.
