Tokyo Olympics: Vinesh Phogat beats Sofia Mattsson 7-1 to enter wrestling quarterfinals

Vinesh Phogat has taken a lead over  Sweden's Sofia Mattson in her opening bout of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2020 women's freestyle 53kg on Thursday. All it took for Vinesh Phogat were 90 seconds as she took a very good four-point lead on the scoreboard with a couple of outstanding takedowns as Sofia  Mattson had to struggle hard to make a comeback early on in the contest.

Tokyo Olympics: Wrestler Vinesh Phogat beats Sofia Mattsson 7-1, Indian in quarters finals

Vinesh Phogat resorted to counter-attacking strategy to enjoy a mammoth 5-0 lead in the first round. She turned defence into an attack against her Swedish counterpart which helped extremely well in Phogat's favor and while Sofia Mattson did earn that solitary point, but it was too little too late as she did earn that one point during the dying minutes of the contest.

Back in 2016, Phogat reached the quarter-finals of the Rio Olympics but lost against China’s Sun Yanan after injuring her knee. She came back stronger in the 2018 Asian Games by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win a gold at the Asian Games. She has won three medals across three tournaments this year and remains a fan favorite to bring an Olympics medal home. Earlier in 2021, she won the Outstanding Ukrainian Wrestlers and Coaches Memorial tournament held in Kyiv, Ukraine by defeating the 2017 world champion Vanesa Kaladzinskay. She won her second gold of the year against Canada’s Diana Mary Helen Weicker in the 2021 Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event which was held in Ostia, Rome. She won another 53kg Gold at the 2021 Poland Open Wrestling tournament which cemented her ticket to the Olympics.

In the Tokyo Olympics so far, Indian Wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya stormed his way into the Olympics Men’s 57kg Wrestling Finals after defeating Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev by a fall. On the other hand, Wrestler Deepak Punia lost his semi-final match for 86kg category to USA’s David Taylor by a margin of 10-0. Deepak will now look to add to India’s tally of medals by winning a Bronze medal. Thursday will definitely be a big day for Indian Olympics Contingent as Ravi Dahiya will fight for an Olympics Gold against Zaur Rizvanovich Uguev of Russia.