Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 11: As India’s wait to know about the outcome of Vinesh Phogat’s appeal to the Court Arbitration of Sports (CAS) for a shared silver grew longer to at least till Tuesday, Mr Nenad Lalovic, president of the United World Wrestling (UWW), the world body that govern the sports, rooted for the prevailing rules that leaves little elbow rooms for awarding any medal to the ace Indian wrestler.
India on Sunday completed the Paris 2024 Olympic campaign at the 71st place among all the sporting nations in the world with six medals including one silver and five bronzes, with six near misses where the Indian athletes ended up at fourth places and out of the podium resulting in heartbreaks.
A medal less than what the country got in the previous edition may have restricted the celebrations in the Indian camp, but the mixed bouquet of hits and near misses paint a promising picture of Indian sports.
Neeraj Chopra (Lone silver), Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Swapnil Kusale, and Aman Sherawat as well as the Indian hockey team brought medals for the country and gave reasons to celebrate. In Tokyo Olympics three years ago India with one gold, two silver and four bronze had finished at the 48th spot.
Shooters Manu (25m sports pistol), Arjun Babuta (10m air rifle) and the mixed team pair of Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan (skeet), the archery mixed team pair of Ankita Bhakat and B. Dhiraj, shuttler Lakshya Sen and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu lost their respective bronze medal contests to miss podium finishes by a whisker.
As CAS kept postponing its final decision on Vinesh Phogat, the country’s hope of securing another silver is also fading. Considering the stand taken by the UWW, it looked highly unlikely that the court would rule in favour of Phogat particularly when all the four medals, gold, silver and two bronze medals have already been awarded in her 50 Kgs category.
Sharing an important insight as far as the entire weigh-in controversy is concerned. Mr Lalovic expressed his sympathies over the entire incident that saw Vinesh being disqualified on the morning of her gold medal bout but said there was no other choice but follow the rules. The UWW chief did not think there was much scope for change in the results as the wrestling body was only following the rules that have been laid down.
“I am so sorry for what happened, but no matter the size of your country, athletes are athletes. This weigh-in was public, everyone saw what happened. How can we allow someone to compete when we all saw what happened. We don’t have any other choice but to follow our rules,” Mr Lalovic said.
“We introduced that rule because of the care for the health of the athletes. Athletes have been obliged to weight rules in order to compete. Maybe some slight adjustments in the rules can be made, but we are not changing the rules. We are counselled and helped by our medical commission. They are absolutely against any change,” he added, ruling out the possibility of a major overhaul in weigh-in rules.
While the gold, silver and bronze medals have already been handed in the 50kg women’s freestyle wrestling, Vinesh has appealed for a joint-silver to be granted to her as she had already made the final while passing the weigh-in test. Though there’s no provision for a second silver to be given but Vinesh and those fighting for her are hoping against hopes of a favourable judgement by CAS. The International Olympic Council (IOC) has agreed to go by the CAS decision.
India’s shooting legend Abhinav Bindra, India’s first Olympian to win an individual gold, also supported the UWW stand. “While sympathies are with Vinesh, rules are what makes any sport what it is, and they need to be followed without exception,” he said.
“It’s an incredibly tough situation. Frankly, I don’t even know what to say. I mean the rules are very clear — where you draw a line. Sport is always governed by the rules. If you don’t govern sport by rules, there is no sport,” Abhinav Bindra said.
While Bindra too is keeping his fingers crossed on the CAS arbitration, he has no clue in which direction the case is heading. “But, of course, I fully empathise with Vinesh. It’s an incredibly difficult time for her. Everybody’s heart is broken. We are all there for her. I had the opportunity to meet her as well.
“I really don’t know where this would end. I know the decision, now, has been postponed for a couple of days. So, I think one just has to be patient. I am not privy to the arguments that have been made, I am no legal expert. So patience is the key,” Bindra commented.