PTI
New Delhi, August 30: Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s bronze medal from the London Olympics has been upgraded to silver after second-place finisher late Besik Kudukhov of Russia was stripped off his medal for failing a dope test.
“This morning I came to know that my Olympics medal has been upgraded to silver. I dedicate my medal to people of the nation,” Yogeshwar tweeted Tuesday.
As per Russian agency, ‘flowrestling.org’, the four-time World Champion and two-time Olympic medallist Kudukhov, who had died in a car crash in 2013 in southern Russia, was found to have used a banned substance in a test conducted by WADA.
As a result, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men’s 60kg freestyle category in the London Games, has now joined Sushil Kumar as the other silver medallist wrestler from the 2012 Olympics. India’s medal tally which stood at two silver and four bronze medals will now change to three silver and three bronze.
Yogeshwar had lost to Kudukhov in the pre-quarterfinals at London. But once the Russian advanced to the final, Yogeshwar got another chance in the repechage round and went on to win bronze.
The results however, are yet to be officially confirmed by the United World Wrestling (UWW), the IOC and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). However, sources in the WFI confirmed that it is only a matter of time before the formal announcement is made.
The news must have come as a huge balm to Yogeshwar who lost in the first round of the Rio Olympics in the 65kg category. Many had expected him to finish with a medal as Yogi, as he is popularly called by his friends, had done brilliantly in the build-up to the Games. However, fighting in the 65kg category at Rio, the Indian wrestler had fared very poorly and had to make an early exit losing to a Mongolian wrestler. Immediately after his defeat, Yogeshwar had announced that he was retiring from the sport.