Hii ni Ile mieleka ya Kihindi niipendayo
London: Wrestler Sushil Kumar today created history by
becoming the first Indian to win back-to-back Olympic medals when he
assured himself a silver by storming into the final of the men's
freestyle 66 category in a dramatic fashion at the Excel arena here
today.The 29-year-old Indian demolished Akhzurek Tanatrov of
Kazakhstan 3-1 in an engrossing semi-final contest to achieve the
memorable feat and provide the late spark to India's Olympic campaign.
With Sushil's heroics on the mat, India have now put themselves on course for the coveted gold medal which had eluded them so far.
With Sushil's heroics on the mat, India have now put themselves on course for the coveted gold medal which had eluded them so far.
Apart
from Sushil's assured silver, India have so far bagged one silver and
four bronze medals in the 30th edition of the Games, surpassing the one
gold and two bronze medals they won in Beijing four years ago.
Sushil,
a bronze medallist in the Beijing Games and the flag bearer of the
Indian contingent here, kept his reputation intact with a stunning
display of skill, stamina and power as he wriggled out of some difficult
positions to fashion victories.
Backed by vociferous Indian
spectators, Sushil wrapped up the first period 3-0 in the high-voltage
semi-final clash against Tanatrov but lost the second by an identical
score.
In the crucial third round, the Indian was lagging 0-3
behind but he showed his class and strength to fightback and level the
score after pegging him down by his legs with the vociferous Indian
contingent egging him on.
With 34 seconds left, the Indian scored
two more points to move to 5-3 and then, with just seconds left in the
contest, he sealed his victory by lifting his rival on to his shoulders
and throwing him down on the mat to win the third period 6-3 to enter
the finals.
The Indian will now meet Japanese army man Tatsuhiro
Yonemitsu in the final. Tatsuhiro prevailed over two-time European
Champion J Hasanov of Azerbeijan in the other semi-final.
Earlier,
Sushil disposed of defending champion Ramazan Sahin of Turkey and then
prevailed over Uzbekistan's Ikhtiyor Naruzov 3-1.
The Indian
appeared a little rusty in the first period of his bout against Sahin in
the pre-quarter finals but found his mojo to tilt the scale in his
favour from the second onwards.
Sushil lost the first period 0-2
and then took advantage of the click to scrape past in the second round
with a 1-0 scoreline. He played it safe in the third round and did not
take too many risks but managed to get one point to get the better of
the Beijing Olympic gold medallist.
In the quarter final, Sushil
showed his aggressive instincts a little more as he tried to rattle the
Uzbek opponent by trying out different grips.
The Indian
wrestler bagged the first period quite comfortably with a 3-1 margin but
conceded two points late in the second to lose 1-2.
With scores
tied at 1-1, Sushil went for an all out attack and relied on his
experience to secure two points and romp into the semi-finals much to
the delight of the hordes of flag-waving Indian spectators who cheered
him lustily.
Sushil had defeated Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan
in the repechage round to win the bronze medal in the Beijing Games four
years ago.
Source: http://daily.bhaskar.com
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