Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik qualify for 2016 Rio Olympics

Phogat was earlier disqualified from the 1st World Olympic Qualifying event for being overweight.

New Delhi: Ace Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat made amends for last month's goof-up by sealing a 2016 Rio spot at the last Olympic qualifier — 2nd World Qualification tournament at Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday.

On a good day for Indian wrestler, 21-year-old (48 kg) became the first female wrestler to book a place for the Rio Games from India. Later Sakshi Malik (58 kg) booked second spot for India on the penultimate day of the competition.

In an embarrassment for India, Phogat was disqualified from the 1st World Olympic Qualifying event for being overweight on April 23.

She weighed 400gm more than what was stipulated to be eligible for the 48kg category competition.

But the Balali-resident promised the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to secure the berth in the last qualification tournament, in Turkey.

Vinesh ensured herself the Rio berth and a silver after winning the semi-final bout against Evin Demirhan from Turkey. She will take on Poland's Iowna Nina Matkowska for the gold medal.

Sakshi, who became the second Indian woman to qualify, defeated China's Lan Zhang in the semi-final to set up a summit clash against Russian Valeria Koblova in the 58kg category.

With Vinesh and Sakshi's qualification, the total number of Indians to qualify has risen to six, four men and two women, eclipsing the previous tally of five for the London Olympics in 2012.