Sushil Kumar bags historic silver, India finish with best-ever haul
Freestyle grappler Sushil Kumar capped the country's most successful campaign at the Olympic Games with a historic silver medal as he became the first Indian to win back-to-back individual medals at the mega event, here today.
Sushil Kumar, a bronze medallist in 2008 at Beijing, fought bravely after vomiting and suffering dehydration following his semi-final victory, but ended up a 1-3 loser against a strong Japanese rival Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu in the gold medal bout.
The final was held inside three hours after his semi- final victory over Kazakhstan's Akzhurek Tanatarov.
And to add to the 29-year-old Indian fighter's woes he had picked up a neck injury too that hampered his progress against Guangzhou Asian Games champion Yonemitsu.
The Haryana wrestler's silver medal was also India's third wrestling medal in Olympic history with K D Jadhav (1952) and Yogeshwar Dutt, won win bronze yesterday in the 60kg freestyle class, being the previous winners.
India, thus, ended its Games campaign with six medals – its best ever show at the biggest sports extravaganza – though four years ago at Beijing shooter Abhinav Bindra also won a gold, which eluded India here.
Wrestling and shooting provided India two medals each, while women boxing and badminton added one medal each.
At Beijing India had bagged one gold and 2 bronze, won by Sushil Kumar and boxer Vijender Singh.
India's hopes to add a gold to its kitty went up in smoke when Sushil could not match up to his Japanese rival, and failed to break through Yonemitsu's stout defence.
Just prior to Sushil's
