Legendary India hockey player PR Sreejesh said the Olympic silver medal was snatched from Vinesh Phogat in the women's 50kg wrestling. Vinesh, who made history by becoming the first Indian female wrestler to reach the Olympic final and assure at least a silver medal, was disqualified from the competition and stripped of a podium finish after she weighed 100gms more than the permissible limit on the morning of her gold-medal bout. Vinesh appealed for a joint silver at the Court of Arbitration for Sports.
The hearing took place on August 9 but the CAS verdict has yet to come. It was deferred twice. The next update is set to come on August 16.
Sreejesh, who retired as one of the most successful hockey goalkeepers of the country after winning bronze at the Paris Games, said he doesn't know what he would have done if he was in Vinesh's place. "There are two views, one being an athlete she deserves a medal, getting into the final, they snatched it from her, silver for sure. She was strong.
If I was in her situation, I don't what I would have done," Sreejesh said at an interaction with PTI. The great wall of India as he is so often referred as, Sreejesh said he met Vinesh on the day of India's bronze-medal match against Spain. "The next day before our bronze medal match I met her and she said 'Bhai good luck, play well'.
I felt like she was hiding her pain with that smile. She is a real fighter." Sreejesh, 36, who won back-to-back Olympic bronze medals in his glorious 18-year-old ca.