World wrestling body chief sad for Vinesh but insists rules are rules

“You have to respect the rules. I am so sad what happened to her," said United World Wrestling (UWW) president Nenad Lalovic.

Vinesh Phogat reacts after her semifinal bout at the Paris Olympics (Photo | PTI)

PARIS: Hours after Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the Paris Olympics after being found overweight ahead of her women's 50kg final, the United World Wrestling (UWW) president Nenad Lalovic spoke about the rule which rendered the Indian wrestler medalless.

Lalovic spoke to a few Indian journalists just after the first session of wrestling bouts got over here at the Champs-de-Mars Arena in Paris on Wednesday. He said that rules are rules and now nothing can be done about Phogat’s disqualification.

“You have to respect the rules,” he said. “I am so sad what happened to her. The weigh-in is in public (it gets recorded) and all other wrestlers are there. Everybody who goes to the medal round knows that they will be weighed in again.”

The weigh-in takes place in front of two referees who check whether the athlete follows all due process. Apparently, she was weighed in on a different machine as well. Given the weight category (50kg) Vinesh was competing in, her weight has to be 50kg or below.

A section of the coaches here believe that cutting weights for women on successive days is quite difficult and the UWW should review this, Lalovic, on the contrary, said that they should be more strict now. “We have to be more strict on this. We are seeing that wrestlers are losing too much weight and that is not good for them. Many see what happens in the moment but they don’t see what happens in the future. We want athletes to compete in their natural weight.”

Lalovic said that “unfortunately this is the second case here”. The previous case was not in the medal round. “That makes no difference,” he said. “Weigh-in is in public and everybody sees it,” he said and again rued what happened with Vinesh.

The UWW chief also said that he has followed Vinesh’s journey but did not want to comment because it was involving India. Asked whether some changes can be made to the rules, he said no. “We have to respect the rules. They are in public and it’s for everyone. If we don’t have the rules what do we have? Ugly mess.”