Tokyo Olympics: 19-year-old Sonam Malik eliminated from women's freestyle 62kg wrestling

Teenager Sonam Malik lost in the 1/8 final of the Tokyo Olympics 2020  women's freestyle 62kg wrestling event to Mongolia's Bolortuya Khurelkhuu on a separation criterion. Sonam Malik led 2-0 until the final 30 seconds of the bout before Mongolia wrestler pulled off a calculated two-point move to move to a wider lead.

Tokyo Olympics: Young participant Sonam Malik eliminated

Sonam Malik did succeed in picking up a point each in the first two rounds by push-outs i.e. throwing Bolortuya Khurelkhuu out of the mat and in fact, had also kept her 2-0 lead intact even in the final round as well. However, Malik could not capitalise on it as her Mongolian counterpart staged a remarkable comeback by clinching those two precious points in the dying seconds of the contest to level the terms.

Even though both participants were leveled as far as the points are concerned, Bolortuya Khurelkhuu was adjudged the winner, and rightfully so as the Mongolia wrestler earned her points with a touchdown. Meanwhile, Sonam Malik's Tokyo Olympics 2020 dreams could have been prolonged and the 19-year-old would have still participated in the repechage round provided Bolortuya Khurelkhuu successfully made it to the finals of the  62kg category.

Unfortunately, that was not to be as the Mongolian wrestler lost in her quarter-final bout to Bulgaria's Taybe Yusein which meant that Sonam Malik's chances of featuring in the repechage round were simply out of contention.

The  'Repechage' round that was introduced for the very first time in the Beijing edition of the quadrennial event helped wrestler Sushil Kumar earn a bronze medal despite his pre-quarterfinal loss to Ukraine's Andriy Stadnik in the men's  66kg event. The repechage rule allows two wrestlers in each weight category who lost in earlier rounds to land bronze medals.

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Sonam Malik wrestling

Sonam Malik had sealed her Tokyo 2020 spot at the Asian Olympic wrestling qualifiers in April. However, a right knee injury did not let her fly to Russia for training in the build-up to the Games. Sonam Malik is a two-time world cadet wrestling champion and has beaten Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik on two occasions in the national trials.