India's Anshu Malik lost her repechage bout at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday, while Vinesh Phogat lost her quarterfinal bout later in the day.
Anshu suffered a 5-1 loss to Valeria Koblova of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in the repechage bout of the women's 57kg freestyle division, ending her hopes of contesting a bronze medal match. Vinesh, meanwhile, lost to Belarus' Vanessa Kaladzinskaya, who won the Indian 9-3 to advance to the semi-finals of the women's 53kg freestyle division.
Kaladzinskaya started off strongly against Vinesh, who was the top favorite in the competition. The Belarusian effected a gut wrench takedown to make it 2-0. The Indian responded quickly to level the match 2–2, but Kaladzinskaya immediately returned to the offensive, quickly going 5–2 by the end of the first three-minute period.
In the second period, Vinesh tried to go for the attack but Kaladzinskaya defended well enough to prevent the Indian from rolling over. The Belarusian converted the defense into attack to extend her lead to 7-2. The Indian camp then won the challenge to reduce the deficit to 7-3. Vinesh attacked again and once again, Kaladzinskaya counterattacked and executed a takedown to go 9-3 with a minute to spare.
Kaladzinskaya pinned the Indian for the win to seal any hopes of Vinesh's comeback.
In Anshu's match, the first three minutes were relatively quiet as none of the wrestlers was able to take the lead. However, Koblova, who won silver in the 58kg at the Rio Olympics and silver at the 2014 World Championships, went up 1-0 at the end of the period after Anshu was awarded a point for inaction.
In the second period, Anshu pushed Koblova off the mat to level it 1-1. With a minute to go, it appeared to be Indian combat, but after about 45 seconds, Koblova dove for Anshu's leg. The Indian worked hard in defense to prevent her opponent from gaining the lead, but Koblova eventually managed a few takedowns and made it 5-1 to advance into the bronze medal match.
Earlier on Thursday, Vinesh defeated Sofia Matsson of Sweden 7-1 to enter the last eight to comfortably win her round of 16 match. His combat was marked by his ability to convert defense into attack and counterattack. Vinesh started off with one such counterattack and soon went 2-0 up. He then executed another takedown to double his lead.
Scoreboard pressure forced Mattson to go on the attack, but Vinesh again managed to stop him. Mattson tries to go for Vinesh's leg but the Indian makes it 5-0 on his opponent. She then went on attack on herself to start the second period, affecting a gut wrench takedown to make it 7-0. In the end, Matsson scored a technical point to get on the scoreboard.
Later on Thursday, Ravi Kumar Dahiya will take on ROC's Zavur Uguev in the men's 57kg gold medal match, followed by Deepak Punia in the men's 86kg bronze medal match against ROC's Artur Naifanov.