Somewhere there has been a 'mistake' on Vinesh's part too: Olympic medalist Saina Nehwal on Phogat's disqualification

India's Vinesh Phogat on Wednesday lost a sure-shot Olympic medal in the women's 50 kg freestyle wrestling event after being found overweight by 100 grams. She had been set to lock horns with Sarah Hildebrandt of the United States for the gold medal.

A statement released by the Indian Olympic contingent revealed that 29-year-old Phogat's disqualification was triggered by a slight uptick in her body weight.

Talking about Phogat's disqualification, Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal in an interview with NDTV said she was "disheartened".


The star badminton player told NDTV that somewhere there has been a mistake on Vinesh's part too.

As per the NDTV report, Nehwal said, "It is not like she is playing her first Olympics, it's her third Olympics. As an athletes she must know the rules. If there has been a mistake, I don't know how it happened. At such a big stage, I have not heard any such thing about any other wrestler, that they have been disqualified due to being overweight. She is an experienced athlete. Somewhere there has been a mistake on Vinesh's part too. She should take the blame too. Before such a big match, such a mistake is not right."

"Generally such type of mistakes don't happen to any athlete at this level. How did this happen is a question mark. Because she has a big team. She has so many coaches, physios, trainers. They all must be feeling so bad. I am not sure about the rules and regulation of wrestling. As an athlete, I am feeling bad," Saina added in her interview with NDTV.

Meanwhile, Phogat has faced disqualification before due to being overweight in a previous category. She was disqualified in 2016 from the World Rio Olympic Qualifying event. She weighed 400gm more than what was stipulated to be eligible for the 48kg category competition.