Yogeshwar Dutt's London 2012 Medal Won't Be Upgraded To Gold, Clarifies Wrestling World Body
In what may come as not so good news for Olympic fans in India, the slight possibility of star wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt's London Olympic Games bronze medal upgrading to gold has been shot down by the sport's governing body.
Yogeshwar Dutt's Silver Medal Plus Other Times When Athlete's Medals Were Upgraded Because Others Were Doping
The United World Wrestling (UWW) today made it clear that the gold medal-winner wrestler in men's 60kg freestyle from London - Togrul Asgarov - never tested positive for a banned substance. Earlier, media reports claimed that Azerbaijan's Asgarov had tested positive for consuming performance enhancing drugs. But now the world body has confirmed that he has not committed any dope violation.
The news came in that Yogeshwar's bronze medal would be upgraded to silver when the eventual silver medallist - Russia's Besik Kudukhov - was found to have used a banned substance during World Anti-doping Agency's and the International Olympic Committee's retrospective testing programme.
As a result of the failed dope test by the four-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist Kudukhov, that medal is likely to be handed over to Yogeshwar. Kudukhov had tragically died in a car crash in 2013 in southern Russia. Yogeshwar was quoted in the media saying that he would prefer Kudukhov's family to keep the silver medal as he respected the wrestler.
Yogeshwar, who had bowed out in the first round of men's 65kg freestyle at the recently concluded Rio Olympic Games, had lost to Kudukhov in the pre-quarterfinals at the London Games. But once the Russian advanced to the final, the 33-year-old grappler got another chance in the repechage round and went on to win a bronze.
However, an official confirmation on whether Yogeshwar would get the silver is still awaited, as the Indian's dope test from the 2012 Games is yet to be cleared before he could be handed the upgraded medal.
As per WADA's revised norms, samples taken for dope tests from international tournaments are now been stored in deep freeze up to 10 years in order to allow the use of advanced technology, available with the passage of time, to catch the dope cheats to ensure that "the clean athletes get justice even if it comes a bit late".
The IOC has been re-testing the samples collected at London as well as 2008 Beijing Olympics, besides other international tournaments, keeping in view of the new rules.