4 years after 2012 London Olympics, Yogeshwar Dutt's bronze medal to turn silver

New Delhi: Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt's bronze medal from the London Olympics upgraded to silver after the second-place finisher from the 2012 Games -- deceased Besik Kudukhov of Russia -- tested positive for banned substance and stripped off his medal. As per Russian agency, flowrestling.org, the four-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist Kudukhov, who had died in a car crash in 2013 in southern Russia, has been found positive for dope test conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). As a result, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men's 60kg freestyle category in London Games, moved up from bronze to silver and joined Sushil Kumar as another silver medallist from the 2012 Olympics. In a tweet, Yogeshwar confirmed the development. "Today morning I came to know that my Olympics medal has been upgraded to silver. I dedicate my medal to all my countrymen," he tweeted.

आज सुबह पता चला की मेरा olympic medal upgrade हो कर Silver medal हो गया है। ये मेडल भी देशवासियों को समर्पित हैं???????? pic.twitter.com/S6qxNHW9Po

— Yogeshwar Dutt (@DuttYogi) August 30, 2016

On when Yogeshwar, who had bowed out in the first round of men's 65kg freestyle at the recently concluded Rio Olympic Games, would be handed a silver medal will be confirmed only when the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) gets it in writing from the World body (UWW). "If a medallist has tested positive for a banned substance, then it is a standard procedure to give his medal to the next best athlete. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has to inform the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), International Olympic Committee (IOC) and United World Wrestling about the development. It might take some time for Yogeshwar to get the silver medal," former Indian wrestler Jagdish Kaliraman was quoted as saying by NDTV. Kudukhov's sample collected during the 2012 London Games was re-tested before the Rio Games. WADA now stores samples for up to 10 years to use advanced testing methods to catch dope-tainted athletes. Yogeshwar lost his pre-quarterfinal to Kudukhov in the 2012 London Games. Yogeshwar got another opportunity to win a medal in the repechage round as the Russian wrestler reached the final. In repechage, the Indian beat Franklin Gomez of Puerto Rico, Masoud Esmaeilpour of Iran and Ri Jong-myong of North Korea to clinch bronze medal.