Star wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt on Saturday secured an Olympic quota place for India with a gold-medal finish in the men’s 65kg freestyle category on an otherwise disappointing day for the country’s grap
Star wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt on Saturday secured an Olympic quota place for India with a gold-medal finish in the men’s 65kg freestyle category on an otherwise disappointing day for the country’s grapplers in the Asian Olympic qualification tournament in Astana.
Yogeshwar became the second Indian wrestler after Narsingh Yadav to book a berth for the Rio Games, to be held later this year.
The 33-year-old qualified for the Olympics by virtue of reaching the final. The top two finishers in each weight category in the tournament are assured of a Rio berth.
The London Olympics bronze-medallist finished on top of the podium after his rival from China Katai Yeerlanbieke forfeited the gold-medal bout. En route the final, Yogeshwar put up a dominating show, winning all his three bouts rather comfortably.En route the final, Yogeshwar put up a dominating show, winning all his three bouts.
In the other men’s freestyle contest, Satywart Kadian missed out on a third-place finish going down to Japan’s Takeshi Yamaguchi 2-3 in his bronze-medal bout in men’s 97kg division.
In women’s section, both the Indian girls in the fray — Sakshi Malik (58kg) and Kiran (75kg) — put up a disappointing show, failing to finish on the podium after going down in their respective bronze-medal bouts.
