By Hiroki Noda,
Japan's Yui Susaki, the reigning Olympic women's 50-kilogram wrestling champion, lost her first bout in Paris on Tuesday.
Susaki, who did not concede a single point en route to the gold medal three years ago in Tokyo, lost on points, 3-2 to India's Vinesh Vinesh at Paris' Champ-de-Mars Arena, ending her winning streak at 94 matches.
The 25-year-old, who won the first of her four world championships in Paris, failed to find the destiny she was seeking against the 29-year-old Vinesh, a two-time Asian Games medalist.
Susaki had a 2-0 lead before Vinesh tied the contest in the dying seconds and won as the last scorer.
"By losing like this, I wasted all the support of so many people," Susaki said. "I kept training for the Paris Olympics without doing anything else. The loss tells me that I don't deserve to be an Olympic champion."
"I couldn't do what I wanted to do. I just don't know what went wrong."
Susaki's stated goal of winning four consecutive Olympic gold medals, to emulate Japan's Kaori Icho who did it between 2004 and 2016, is seemingly dashed after the loss.
Fellow Japanese Nonoka Ozaki advanced to a bronze medal match in the women's 68-kg category with a 6-0 victory over Mongolia's Enkhsaikhan Delgermaa in the repechage round.
In the men's Greco-Roman 77-kg division, Nao Kusaka won two matches to reach the semifinals.
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