Suchika Tariyal won a historic MMA bronze for India at the Asian Games on Monday despite going down in the women’s traditional -60kg semi-final against Singapore’s Hui Hoon Teo. The bout ended in heartbreak for the 36-year-old, who was left in tears after learning she would not advance to the gold medal match.
Drama unfolded in the minutes before the eventual winner was declared, as Suchika refused to approach the officials, seemingly unhappy with the impending verdict.
“Since the Singaporean was lighter than Suchika by around 700 grams, she moved to the final. It was on this basis that Suchika missed out on a place in the final, as her morning weigh-in was 700 grams heavier than her opponent’s. Once Suchika went up to the official at her coach’s request, the referee raised the Singaporean opponent’s hand, declaring her the winner. The Indian camp then challenged the decision, only to have its appeal rejected on a technicality. During the challenge, the Indian camp was informed that the contest had ended in a draw, but Hui Hoon advanced to the gold-medal match on the basis of her morning weight. Suchika settled for bronze,” he added. These weigh-ins are crucial, as they can ultimately decide the winner in a drawn contest, as was the case in Suchika’s semi-final. If the overtime ends in a draw, the athlete who has not received any warnings wins. However, if neither opponent receives a warning, or both have the same number of warnings, the athlete with the lighter body weight at the start of the day’s competition is declared the winner. Had their morning weigh-ins been identical, the deciding factor would have been their body weight after the match. If that had been identical as well, the final call would have been made based on the flag-raising decision of three side referees. The athlete who received the same flag from at least two of the three side referees would have been declared the winner.
