 "Paris Olympics 2024: No repechage for Reetika Hooda after she loses quarter-final bout to Aiperi Medet Kyzy")
India’s Reetika Hooda went down to Aiperi Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan in the quarter-finals of the women’s 76 kg freestyle wrestling competition at the Paris Olympics on Saturday. She lost the bout with the final score reading 1-1.
Reetika’s exit from the Paris Olympics without a medal was confirmed later on Saturday when Medet Kyzy lost her semi-final bout against USA’s Alexis Blades 6-8. Kyzy thus will be fighting for bronze while Reetika goes back empty-handed.
Her exit means, fellow wrestler Aman Sehrawat’s bronze in the men’s 57kg event remains the sixth and final medal for the Indian contingent at the Paris Games, matching their second-best haul in Olympic history at the 2012 London Games. India, however, had won two silver and four bronze in London compared to one silver and five bronze in Paris.
How did Kyzy win the bout despite the scores being level at 1-1?
Reetika lost the bout on the basis of last technical point scored. This is the final tie-breaker in freestyle wrestling. Whichever wrestler is the last one to score a point in the match, that wrestler would be declared the winner. Kyzy thus won the bout via a technical point in the tie-break criteria.
Hooda received a couple of warnings early in the bout, but a passivity warning for Kyzy meant that the Indian youngster earned a point. Reetika went into the second half on the back of a 1-0 lead, but a passivity warning for the Indian in the second period costed Reetika dearly.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn the pre-quarterfinal bout, Hooda had beaten Hungary’s Bernadett Nagy 12-2 via technical superiority.
Paris Olympics: News, schedule, medals tally and more
In that bout, Reetika received a 30-second penalty for passivity against Berandett, but bounced back in the bout with a few takedowns as she took a 4-0 lead. Nagy, too, scripted a comeback later in the first period to claim two crucial points, but Reetika maintained a lead of 4-2 at the end of the first period.
In the second period, Reetika initiated yet another takedown to lead with a margin of 6-2 against the Hungarian. A clinical Reetika continued to dominate, pinning her opponent on the mat to gain four more points, with the lead now reading 10-2. She needed just two more points to register a memorable victory on Olympic debut, and did so with ease with less than 30 seconds left in the bout.
In 2023, the Rohtak wrestler beat Kennedy Blades of USA to become the first Indian woman wrestler to clinch gold at the U23 World Championships tournament. The 22 year-old is also a bronze medallist at the Senior Asian Championships and the U20 World Championships.
On Friday, Aman Sehrawat clinched bronze in the men’s 57 kg freestyle wrestling competition at the Paris Olympics. He defeated Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz 13-5 to clinch India’s only medal in wrestling so far in Paris. That took India’s medals tally at the Paris Olympics to six, including four other bronze medals and a silver.
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