NEW DELHI: Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt's bronze medal from the London Olympics has been upgraded to silver, the grappler confirmed via a tweet on Tuesday. The silver medallist from the 2012 Games - deceased Besik Kudukhov of Russia - has been stripped off his medal for using banned substance.
"आज सुबह पता चला की मेरा olympic medal upgrade हो कर Silver medal हो गया है। ये मेडल भी देशवासियों को समर्पित हैं," he tweeted, which meant "This morning I got to know that my Olympic medal has been upgraded to Silver. I dedicate this medal to my countrymen."
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.
As a result, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men's 60kg freestyle category in London Games, has moved up from bronze to silver and joined Sushil Kumar as another silver medallist from the 2012 Olympics.
However, the official confirmation will have to come from the United World Wrestling (UWW) and the International Olympic Committee.
On whether and 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).