Saturday, August 11, 2012

India at Olympics 2012- Day 14

Towards the fag end of Olympics 2012, India's participation is now limited to free style wrestling event.
There are four categories, 55kg, 60kg, 66kg and 74kg where our wrestlers appear. Out of these, 2 events 55kg and 74kg happened on day 14. India's Amit Kumar in 55kg category and Narsingh Yadav in 74kg category ultimately ended their challenge on sad note.

In 74 kg category, Narsingh Yadav lost his bout in 2 straight sets. To me he appeared totally clueless about what is happening around him and before he came to his senses, the bout was over. For a moment I thought he is making his debut in wrestling competition through Olympics. Later on, found out that he actually has won many medals in different competitions for India.
It was really surprising to see the way he went for his first bout. Compared to him, his competitor from Canada looked far more relaxed and experienced. And he surely won his bout with sheer experience. He did not gave any opportunity to Indian wrestler.

In contrast was the performance of Amit Kumar. He is only 18 years old and the youngest of all the wrestlers. He got a bye in first round. And he did well in second round. He used good techniques and although his opponent was looking an experienced one, he managed to win the bout.

The quarter final round really confused me. I really have no idea how these judges give points. May be my lack of knowledge in wrestling, but the way I see it, Amit Kumar almost picked up his opponent and threw him on the mat. The opponent from Georgia regained the control quickly and ended up controlling the situation. I understand that the Georgian wrestler should get points, but why no point  to Amit and 4 points to opponent is really surprising. Well he lost the match finally.
Since the Georgian wrestler managed to reach the Final, Amit got another chance to fight for Bronze.
This bout was really horrible. Amit's opponent was just not at all ready to give in. He kept running away from Amit. Amit was aggressive and tried to make many moves, but his opponent was running away not allowing Amit to come any closer. I believe he should have been warned for avoiding the fight.
But nothing happened.
Now, this clinch thing is something funny. If a set ends in tie, then one of the wrestler (first the one in red and then if necessary in next round for blue) gets a chance to select a ball. Depending on the color of the ball, red or blue, one gets a chance to make a move with  other wrestler in more or less a surrendering situation (Hands up). And it is totally luck based who gets the advantage. It may happen that the same wrestler gets the advantage in all the rounds.
And that's what happened  with Amit Kumar. His opponent managed to take both the rounds till end by not at all fighting and unfortunately in both the rounds he got the advantage to make the move and gain single point some how managing to win the sets and so the bout.

Amit was really unlucky and must be really disappointed to loose it in this manner.

All we can say, he  will learn from mistakes he made, become more stronger and better in coming days and be better prepared for next Olympics.



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