India’s wrestler Sushil Kumar gets silver in Olympics

India will not have a gold medal to show from the London Olympic Games as wrestler Sushil Kumar had to settle for a silver in the 66kg free style category after being outclassed by Japanese Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu 3-1 in the gold medal bout, in London on Sunday.

Nevertheless, the Indian wrestler recorded his name in sports history annals of the country by becoming the first ever sportsperson to win back-to-back individual Olympic medals, having won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. It was India's third wrestling medal in Olympic history with K.D Jadhav (1952) and Yogeshwar Dutt (2012) being the previous winners.

With Sushil's silver, India ended its London Games campaign with six medals — its best ever show at the biggest sports extravaganza. Wrestling and shooting provided India two medals each, while women boxing and badminton added one medal each.

India had hoped to add a gold to its kitty when Sushil Kumar reached the final but his Japanese rival, an Asian Games champion, prevailed with his stout defence.

Raj Singh, the secretary general of the Wrestling Federation of India said after the final that Sushil had a bout of diarrhea and suffered dehydration after his semifinal bout. He had also vomited as something he had eaten did not agree with him. He also had a neck injury which he suffered during the semifinal against Kazakhstan's Akzhurek Tanatarov but that did not affect him, according to Raj.

Sushil trailed 0-1 after the first round and was out of the contest within 30 seconds of the second round when Yonemitsu penetrated his defence, lifted him up and banged him to fetch decisive three points lead. Sushil had made a stunning comeback in the semifinal but could not repeat that in the final, although he reduced the margin by getting one point.

Earlier, the pin-up boy of Indian wrestling fought the best bout of his life as he came from behind to beat Tantarov 3-1 in the semifinal.

Sushil Kumar can take a bow as he will now be considered at par with legendary hockey players Dhyan Chand and Balbir Singh Sr although theirs was a team sport and were part of back-to-back gold medal winning teams.

- Asian Tribune -