Despite the forgettable exit at the Rio Olympics, where wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt lost in the qualification round, this might be a pleasant surprise for him.
Dutt’s bronze medal, which he won at the 2012 London Olympics, has been upgraded to silver as the late silver medallist Russia’s Besik Kudukhov (60 kg) has been stripped off his medal for testing positive for doping.
Yogeshwar, in a tweet on Tuesday morning, confirmed that his medal has been upgraded from bronze to silver. however, there has been no official confirmation yet.
The four-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist Kudukhov, who had died in a car crash in 2013 in southern Russia, was been found positive for dope test conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
As a result, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men's 60kg freestyle category in London Games, is likely to be up from bronze to silver and join Sushil Kumar as another silver medallist from the 2012 Olympics.
Ahead of the Rio Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) re-tested the four time world champion Kudukhov’s sample, which was collected during the London Games.
However, the official confirmation will have to come from the United World Wrestling (UWW) and the International Olympic Committee.
The re-test was part of standard practice, according to which the samples are stored for up to 10 years to allow the use of advanced testing methods to weed out dope cheats.
On whether and when Yogeshwar would be handed a silver medal will be confirmed only when the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) gets it in writing from the World body (UWW).
With this medal upgrade, Yogeshwar will join Sushil Kumar as the second Indian wrestler, and only the fifth Indian ever, to win an individual silver medal at the Olympics.
(With PTI inputs)
