London silver could turn gold for Yogeshwar Dutt
Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt could be awarded the gold medal after the winner in his 60kg event at the 2012 London Olympics failed a dope test, Hindustan Times learnt on Friday, days after the grappler’s bronze was upgraded to silver in an identical fashion.
A source said the World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) is yet to officially communicate the news of gold medallist Toghrul Asgarov’s positive dope test to the United World Wrestling (UWW), the game’s governing body.
If confirmed, Yogeshwar could become the second Indian individual gold medallist after shooter Abhinav Bindra.
“If I go on to win gold it will be a great thing for the nation. But quite a few things have to fall in place first for that to happen,” said Yogeshwar, who lost in the first round at Rio.
At London, Yogeshwar was ranked higher between the two bronze medallists, considering his dominance and points won in the medal bout. His sample, taken during the 2012 Games, will also be tested before he is upgraded to gold.
Yogeshwar was awarded the silver after Besik Kudukhov, who died in a car crash in 2013, failed a dope retest last month.
The Haryana grappler had defeated Franklin Gomez of Puerto Rico, Masoud Esmaeilpour of Iran and Ri Jong-myong of North Korea in the repechage rounds to claim bronze in 2012.
A top Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) official said he was unaware of the development.
The development comes in the midst of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) re-testing samples collected from the Beijing and London Olympics using enhanced techniques to expose doping scandals.
Under WADA’s revised norms, samples taken for dope tests from international tournaments are now being 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 dope cheats to ensure that “the clean athletes get justice even if it comes a bit late”