The Indian women's wrestling campaign in the Rio 2016 Olympics came to an end on Thursday as Babita Kumari crashed out of the games in her pre-quarters bout over Greece's Maria Prevolaraki at the at the Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro. Babita was the final woman wrestler remaining in the games this year.
It was complete domination by the Greek grappler as she quickly picked up technical points to end the six-minute bout with a 5-1 score. Babita just couldn't cope with the pressure and was not very effective in her defence as well as the attack, which is one of her strongest points.
It remains to be seen now if Babita can compete once again on Thursday via the repechage, the method with which Sakshi Malik won the bronze on Wednesday. However, for Babita to compete through repechage, Maria has to make it to the gold medal match in the 53kg women's wrestling event.
Everyone expected the Phogat sisters, Vinesh and Babita, to make a good mark in Olympics 2016 but the expectations didn't meet. While Vinesh had a heartbreaking exit on Wednesday in the women's 48 kg freestyle wrestling category, Babita just couldn't use her strength to the best of use on Thursday.
The only Indian wrestlers still remaining in the games are Sandeep Tomar, Yogeshwar Dutt and Narsingh Yadav. The participation of Narsingh still remains a doubt, however, until the WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) verdict is not out.
