Vinesh Phogat of India reacts after winning the match against Yui Susaki of Japan. (REUTERS)
Thought she might die, says Vinesh Phogat coach on weight-cut before final
Vinesh Phogat’s coach at the Paris Games, Woller Akos, has said he feared that the wrestler “might die” by the end of the five-and-a-half hours of intense weight-cut the night before the Olympic final.
Facing criticism after Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the 50-kg final for being 100g overweight, the Hungarian, in a social media post on Thursday, said the team did everything possible before the second-day weigh-in so that the wrestler could take the mat for the gold-medal bout.
In a Facebook post in Hungarian, which he later took down, Akos highlighted Vinesh Phogat’s commitment to secure her first Olympic medal. “After the semi-final, 2.7 kg of excess weight was left; we exercised for one hour and twenty minutes, but 1.5 kg still remained. Later, after 50 minutes of sauna, not a drop of sweat appeared on her. There was no choice left, and from midnight to 5:30 in the morning, she worked on different cardio machines and wrestling moves, about three-quarters of an hour at one go, with two-three minutes of rest. Then she started again. She collapsed, but somehow we got her up, and she spent an hour in the sauna. I don’t intentionally write dramatic details, but I only remember thinking that she might die,” Akos wrote. (READ MORE)
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