Yogeshwar Dutt also acknowledged Besik Kudukhov as a “great” wrestler and he still respected him as a wrestler. (Source: Reuters) Yogeshwar Dutt also acknowledged Besik Kudukhov as a “great” wrestler and he still respected him as a wrestler. (Source: Reuters)

Indian Olympic medallist and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, on Wednesday, took to the micro blogging site, Twitter, to comment on his silver medal elevation from the London 2012 Olympics. Yogeshwar, who had a disappointing stint at the recently concluded Rio 2016 Olympics, had something to lift up his spirits when reports started making the rounds about his bronze medal, from the London Olympics, to get upgraded to silver. The unexpected upgrade was triggered by a positive dope test of the silver winner in the 60-kg freestyle event in London – Russia’s Besik Kudukhov.

In London, Yogeshwar had lost his pre-quarterfinal bout to Kudukhov. When the Russian wrestler reached the final, Yogeshwar got another opportunity for a podium finish in the repechage round – he defeated Franklin Gomez of Puerto Rico, Masoud Esmaeilpour of Iran and Ri Jong-myong of North Korea to claim bronze.

Earlier, Yogeshwar had refused to comment on the issue. But on Tuesday evening the wrestler said, “Jo likha hota hai, wo hoke rehta hai (What’s written in the stars is bound to happen).”

He further commented, “This is good, another victory for India.”

Yogeshwar had clarified that he didn’t receive any official confirmation on the elevation of his bronze medal to silver from 2012 London Games. He also dedicated his silver medal to the people of India through his tweet.

Yogeshwar, on Wednesday morning, said that he wanted Besik Kudukhov’s family to keep the silver medal. Besik died in a car accident back in 2013 just a year after the London Summer Games. But IOC’s re-testing of samples for dope abuse revealed that Besik had taken performance enhancing drugs during the London Games.

Yogeshwar said that sympathy towards the deceased and his family is paramount for him. Yogeshwar also acknowledged Besik as a “great” wrestler and he still respected him as a wrestler.

अगर हो सके तो ये मेडल उन्ही के पास रहने दिया जाए। उनके परिवार के लिए भी सम्मानपूर्ण होगा। मेरे लिए मानवीय संवेदना सर्वोपरि है। — Yogeshwar Dutt (@DuttYogi) 31 August 2016

Besik Kudukhov शानदार पहलवान थे। उनका मृत्यु के पश्चात dope test में fail हो जाना दुखद हैं। मैं खिलाड़ी के रूप में उनका सम्मान करता हूँ। — Yogeshwar Dutt (@DuttYogi) 31 August 2016

The standard practice, which involves re-testing of samples stored for up to 10 years to allow the use

of advanced testing methods to weed out dope cheats, conducted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had paved the way for Yogeshwar to join the ranks of wrestler Sushil Kumar and shooter Vijay Kumar as silver-medallists for India.

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