Suchika Tariyal says weight tiebreak denied her gold after Asian Games semifinal

Suchika Tariyal and Singapore’s Tea Hui Hoon met in the women’s traditional 60kg semifinal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday, where the bout was declared a draw and the winner was decided by the athletes’ morning weigh-in, leaving Suchika with a bronze after her opponent was 700 grams lighter.

MMA made its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya, and Suchika produced a historic run to reach the semifinal, becoming India’s first-ever Asian Games MMA medallist when she finished with bronze. The 36-year-old returned to New Delhi and spoke to PTI at the IGI Airport about the conclusion of her campaign.

“I was clearly winning the bout, but it was declared a draw very strangely. Instead of (having) one more round, they applied these weird weight rules which virtually robbed me of my deserving gold medal,” Suchika told PTI on her arrival at the IGI Airport in New Delhi.

“Regarding the weight rule, I felt it was a very bad rule. They could have let me play one more round. Even if I had lost that round, I could have accepted it, but I could not accept what happened,” she said.

Suchika described her in-ring performance and her expectations for the outcome: "I am very happy to get a medal. The way I was playing, it looked like I would win the gold medal. I know how I reached that stage. I worked very hard, and I couldn't lose like that. As far as I know, I was winning both the bouts," she said. "Even in the one-minute round, I was dominating her. She was running backwards, and I was on top of her," she added.

The bout initially appeared to be a loss for Suchika, prompting the Indian MMA federation to challenge the decision; judges reviewed the footage and then declared the contest a draw. "After the Indian challenge, the result of the bout was declared drawn. The winner was then decided on the basis of the weights of competing athletes according to morning weigh-in," MMA Sports Federation president Nikhil Kunde told PTI. "Since, the Singaporean was lighter than Suchika by around 700 grams, she moved to the final. Suchika settled for bronze."

Under the Asian MMA rules cited after the match, tied bouts are resolved by a sequence of criteria: officials first check warnings received by the athletes and then the advice issued to them; if those remain identical, the athletes’ pre-competition weights are compared, followed by post-competition weights if necessary, with the final tiebreak involving the three assistant referees using flags. In Suchika’s case, the weight comparison proved decisive and Teo advanced to the final by that tiebreak.

"I do not know why they did that. I am not saying it was cheating. If you are declaring the match a draw, you could have given me the win too. What was my shortcoming that you gave her the win? That is all I want to say," Suchika said, while also expressing pride in her podium finish: "Still, I am happy that I have won a bronze medal because it is more precious to me than my life. I have worked extremely hard for it," she said.

With MMA currently absent from the Olympic programme, Suchika has already turned her attention towards the World Championship and the fights that lie ahead, and she remains hopeful that MMA could eventually find a place at the Olympics, giving her another long-term target to chase.