Paris: When the clock ran down and the scores froze at 1-1 in an intense bout between Reetika Hooda and Aiperi Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan, both wrestlers stood exhausted with heads down. Reetika then got up, caught her breath, walked off and bent again to touch the mat before leaving.

She wouldn’t know whether she would return again to fight on the mat of the Paris Olympics. She will not.

Kyzy, the two-time World Championships medallist, was dramatically beaten by American Kennedy Alexis Blades 8-6 in the 76kg semi-final later on Saturday to dash Reetika’s hopes of getting into the repechage round on Sunday.

Reetika’s ouster also signalled an end to India’s Paris Olympics campaign at six medals (five bronze and one silver), one short of the Tokyo Games three years ago in number and without a gold.

As a rare Indian face in the higher weight class, young Reetika matched the seasoned Kyzy, especially in defence, in the quarter-finals that she lost on criteria. Both players scored their solitary point each on account of the other’s passivity, with the Kyrgyz wrestler getting the latest point to be declared the winner.

Reetika, 21, walked away with a hint of sadness on her face despite running the reigning 76kg Asian Games champion close.

“It’s disappointing, because I thought she could have pulled off this win,” Virender Singh Dahiya, India’s national wrestling coach, said. “She fought well against an established opponent, but you cannot win by just defending.”

Reetika made an assured start to her Paris campaign, recovering from a slightly slow initial few seconds to romp to victory by technical superiority (12-2) against Hungarian Bernadett Nagy.

Kyzy was a stiffer challenge next up, with the Kyrgz grappler being the gold medallist of Hangzhou and the silver medallist of last year’s World Championships in Belgrade. The young Indian, who had never faced her before, though held her own.

Reetika put Kyzy in some trouble in the early exchanges but the Kazakh stayed clear with her defence. Kyzy was handed a passivity warning, and Reetika got the point to go into the break in the lead after a cagey three minutes. Nothing to separate the two, their arms were interlocked soon after resumption, an opportunity the Indian camp felt Reetika could have utilised to find the opening.

It was Reetika now with the passivity warning, and even though she made an aggressive move immediately, the scores had been levelled. Both were then tightly engaged in another move, and both managed to hang on. With the clock ticking, Reetika knew she had to do something to break and deadlock, and she tried to attack her legs with 20 seconds to go. But Kryz thwarted it, and Reetika was out of time and energy.

Reetika has made steady progress in this weight division where India didn’t even have representation at the Olympic level. She won the U-23 World Championships gold last year and earned her spot in Paris by winning the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in a dominant show.

Reetika was the last Indian grappler in action from a Games in which Indian wrestling had one medal to show and a lot more activity off it.