Thaindian News

London, Aug 9 (IANS) India wrestler Geeta Phogat crashed out while woman high jumper Sahana Kumari’s plunge fell short of taking her to the final in the London Olympics here Thursday.

Late Wednesday night, boxer Laishram Devendro Singh bowed out from the men’s quarter-final stage after a brave fight, ending India’s campaign in the competition at the Excel Arena.

Geeta was out of the Olympics after she lost her first repechage round to Ukraine’s Tetyana Lazareva 3-0 in the women’s 55 kg wrestling event here Thursday.

Geeta got into the repechage round after Canadian Tonya Lynn Verbeek, who had defeated her in the first round, went on to qualify for the title clash.

In the repechage, Geeta found it extremely tough against the 31-year-old Tetyana, a two-time silver medallist at the World Championship. Geeta lost the first period 3-0 and the second 1-0.

In the first round, Geeta, the first Indian female wrestler in Olympics, lost 1-3 in the first round to Tonya, a two-time Olympic medallist. Tonya, 34, was a silver medallist in Athens Olympics and bronze medal winner at the Beijing Games.

The fight was even till round two with both opponents sharing a point each. Verbeek then changed gears in the final round to advance to the quarter-finals.

Geeta qualified for the repechage after Tonya won her quarter-final and semi-final bouts to reach the final, where she will be up against Japanese Saori Yoshida.

The Haryana girl was country’s first ever gold medal in women’s wrestling in the 55kg category at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

In boxing, Devendro narrowly missed out on a medal, going down to Irishman Paddy Barnes in the quarter-finals of the men’s 49kg category.

His 18-23 loss to the Beijing Games bronze medallist ended India’s boxing campaign in the mega event. While woman boxer Mary Kom got a bronze, none of her male counterparts could finish in the medal bracket.

In track and field, 30-year-old Sahana quite easily cleared her first jump of 1.80 metres but had three failed attempts at 1.85m that put an end to her campaign.

Sahana, who holds the national record with a lunge of 1.92m, could only manage the 15th place in group B.

Svetlana Radzivil of Uzbekistan was the lone jumper to get automatic qualification by clearing the 1.96m mark. Later in the day, Tintu Luka would be seen in action in the Women’s 800 metres semi-final.