Yogeshwar Wins Bronze Medal in Olympics 2012

India's Yogeshwar Dutt won the bronze in the men’s 60kg freestyle wrestling in an exciting bout against North Korea’s Jong Myong Ri late on Saturday. Yogeshwar was down in the first round, but came back in the next two to take India’s medal tally up.

Earlier, Yogeshwar had lost to Russia’s Besik Kudukhov 3-0 in the pre-quarterfinal. However, the Russian went on to the finals of the competition. As a result, Yogeshwar qualified for the repechage round. In the first repechage, Yogeshwar won 3-0 against Franklin Gomez Matos of Puerto Rico Matos, a silver medallist in the World Championship. In the second repechage he beat Iranian Masoud Esmaeilpoorjouybari 3-1 to set up a clash with the North Korean in the bronze medal play-off match at the Excel Arena. After dominating his opponent and winning the last round 6-0, Yogeshwar was a clear winner. He then executed a perfect backflip to celebrate the victory. Yogeshwar had vowed to bring home an Olympic medal after his father passed away in 2006.

Now India will be hoping for a second wrestling medal when Sushil Kumar enters the ring on Sunday in the men’s 66kg freestyle category.