Babita loses opening bout and gets eliminated

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 18 (PTI) Babita Kumari lost heropening women’s 53 kg category wrestling bout 1-5 againstMaria Prevolaraki of Greece and got eliminated from thecompetition in the Olympic Games here today. Getting on the mat a day after teammate Sakshi Malik hadprovided India with their first medal in the Games, a bronzein the 58 kg class, much was expected of Babita, winner of twomedals in past Commonwealth Games and bronze medalist in theWorld Championship in 2012. But the 26-year-old grappler could not succeed againstthe tight defense put up by her Greek rival and lost points inboth the periods of their pre-quarter final bout. And when Maria too lost her quarter-final bout againstVenezuela’s Betzabeth Angelica Arguello Villegas 3-6, it speltcurtains for the Indian’s slim hopes of replicating Sakshi andwin a bronze through the repechage process. In both the three-minute periods, Babita got a leg holdon her rival but the Greek somehow managed to extricate out ofthe difficult situation and turn the tables on the Indiangrappler. Maria took a 3-0 lead in the opening period when shewriggled out of the one-leg hold applied by Babita and wentbehind the Indian girl to get two points after having thrownher opponent out of the safety zone on the mat earlier to logher first point. Babita, an Arjuna awardee who won the silver medal in theCWG at Delhi six years ago, had a chance to log some valuablepoints due to the 30-second passivity rule applied against herrival, but could get no more than one. That was the lone point Babita secured as Maria got outof the Indian’s double leg hold and then, like in the firstperiod, escaped from a two leg hold to move behind Babita tosecure two more points. Trailing 1-5 Babita needed to flip her rival down from astanding position to level the score but failed to do so inspite of a good attempt and Maria won the bout to move intothe quarter finals. Yesterday while Sakshi won bronze in the 58 kg, Babita’scousin Vinesh Phogat suffered a ligament tear during her boutin the 48 kg class against a Chinese rival, got stretcheredout and also bowed out of the wrestling competition. The elimination of Babita brought to an end Indianchallenge in the women’s section of wrestling at the Games.PTI SSR ATKSSR