The dramatic and devastating disqualification of Vinesh Phogat on Wednesday morning was the final stage of a weight-management process that spanned 12-odd hours, beginning after her semifinal bout on Tuesday evening Paris time. The sequence of events also reveals the growing concern in Vinesh's team at the possibility of exactly such a scenario happening.
Even so, the official decision to disqualify her stunned the team. "The whole Indian camp there was shocked," said Virender Dahiya, the national women's team coach, who is in Paris. "Aisa tha jaise kisi ki ghar main maut hogyi hai (it felt like a death in the family)."
Here, as explained by Dahiya, is how the scenario unfolded:
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Tuesday, 7 PM (Paris time): Vinesh's semifinal bout against Guzman Lopez, which she won 5-0.
Around 8 PM: Vinesh was back to training to cut weight. Her weight, checked on Tuesday morning, is likely to have increased through the day as she replenished herself after three bouts and it is understood she had to lose about 2kgs overnight. She put on a sweat suit and was skipping and engaging in other exercises.
Later that night: She went to the sauna around 11 PM to cut water weight. Her body was in good shape, Dahiya says; it seemed like one training session in the morning would have been enough to cut the necessary weight.
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Early Wednesday morning: Vinesh woke up and began training, still trying to cut the excess weight. She trained for two hours, but just couldn't get to the permissible limit. She trained with a sweatsuit on a cycle, on a treadmill and even sparred with a training partner but, Dahiya said, she did not shed one drop of sweat.
Around 8 AM: Vinesh went for the weigh-in. Antim Panghal, competing in the 53kg category, was also around ahead of her event on Wednesday afternoon. Also present were Gagan Narang, the Indian team's chef de mission, and Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, the contingent doctor. Everyone was worried, Dahiya said. When Vinesh was weighed, she was 110 grams over. She tried cutting her hair, but it didn't make much of a difference.
Soon after, the organisers announced their decision to disqualify her and strip her of her medal.