Vinesh Phogat deserves silver medal at least, says Sourav Ganguly

Kolkata: Former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly on Sunday extended his support to wrestler Vinesh Phogat, saying she deserves at least a silver medal for reaching the 50kg freestyle final at the Paris Olympics.

The 29-year-old Vinesh was disqualified ahead of the gold-medal bout for being 100gm overweight above the prescribed limit in the morning weigh-in, crushing her Olympic dream. The heartbreak prompted her to announce her retirement from wrestling.

“I don’t know the exact rule, but I’m sure that when she reached the finals, she must have qualified properly,” Ganguly told reporters when asked for his opinion on the matter on the sidelines of the Kolkata Food Festival here.

“So when you go to the finals, it’s either a gold or silver medal. Whether she was disqualified wrongfully or not, I don’t know, but she deserves the silver medal at least,” he added.

Vinesh has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), demanding that she be awarded a joint silver medal with Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who had lost to the Indian but was later promoted to the final following the Haryana wrestler’s disqualification.

American Sarah Hildebrandt won the gold after defeating Lopez in the title clash.

The decision on Vinesh’s appeal is expected to come on August 13.

Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar also had supported Vinesh, saying the disqualification of the Indian wrestler, “defied logic and sporting sense”, and asked for rules to be revisited.