Vinesh Phogat pulled off the biggest upset at the Paris Games by outwitting hitherto invincible Yui Susaki with a perfectly planned strategy before edging past Ukraine’s Oksana Livach to storm into the women’s 50kg semifinal as she inched closer to an elusive Olympic medal, here on Tuesday.
The Tokyo Games gold medallist and four-time World Champion Susaki had not lost any of her 82 bouts in her international career but the Japanese top seed hardly had an idea as to what was about to hit her in the opener which she lost 2-3.
Later, Vinesh quelled the challenge of former European champion and 2018 world championship bronze-medallist Livach 7-5 in the quarterfinal.
Having endured two Olympic heart-breaks, the feisty 29-year-old, is now only one win away from ensuring her maiden Olympic medal.
Vinesh has every medal in her cabinet which includes three CWG gold, an Asian Games title, eight Asian Championship medals to go with two World Championship bronze but Olympic success eluded her both times in Rio and Tokyo.
“It’s a miracle, no less than a miracle what Vinesh has done today. It was such a sad Monday due to Nisha’s injury but Vinesh has lightened up the day,” India’s national coach Virender Dahiya said before leaving for Anitm Panghal’s draw.
It was not just the Indian camp that was celebrating but the wrestlers in the Susaki’s half in the draw were relieved that the big obstacle has been removed.
“With the world champion out, I thought I will now have a better chance. Vinesh was very strong, I tried to fight but I made a few mistakes,” said Livach after her close 5-7 defeat against Vinesh. Thrown in at the deep end, Vinesh came up with a strategy to look for that one attack in the dying moments and pulled that off successfully.
There was no action for the first 90 seconds as the two wrestlers measured each other.