Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has thrown his weight behind wrestler Vinesh Phogat, following her disqualification from the Women’s 50kg event at the Paris Olympics 2024. Vinesh was disqualified on the morning of his gold medal bout for being 100 grams overweight, shattering the 29-year-old’s hopes of winning an Olympic medal. After her disqualification, Vinesh has made an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to be awarded the silver medal. While the appeal was accepted, the CAS said that its one-member Ad-hoc panel will give a verdict on the same before the end of the Paris Olympics.
Taking to social media platform X, Tendulkar highlighted the loopholes in the rules, suggesting that the rule books should be revisited at times.
“Time for an Umpire’s Call! Every sport has rules and those rules need to be seen in context, maybe even revisited at times. Vinesh Phogat qualified fair and square for the finals. Her disqualification by weight, was before the finals, and hence, for her to be robbed of a deserving silver medal defies logic and sporting sense,” Tendulkar said in a statement.
#VineshPhogat #Paris2024 #Olympics @WeAreTeamIndia pic.twitter.com/LKL4mFlLQq
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) August 9, 2024
Tendulkar added that since Vinesh beat her opponents fair and square on her way to the final, it’s unfair to take the credit away from her, and hoped that the CAS will deliver the verdict in favour of the Indian athletes.
“It would have been understandable if an athlete were to have been disqualified for ethical breaches such as the usage of performance enhancing drugs. In that case, to not be awarded any medal and be placed last would be justifiable. However, Vinesh beat her opponents fairly to reach the top two. She definitely deserves a silver medal. While we all wait for a verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, let us hope and pray that Vinesh gets the recognition she deserves,” the statement added.
Vinesh, who will be represented by renowned senior counsels Harish Salve and Vidushpat Singhania, filed a plea before the CAS ad hoc division at 2:00 PM on Wednesday.
The CAS has confirmed that there was no time to annul her disqualification from the Olympic Games, due to the paucity of time.
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