The prevailing air of negativity, triggered by India\u2019s blow-hot, blow-cold showing in the Olympics, metamorphosed into unfettered delight as Sushil Kumar made it a red-letter day for himself and his nation, winning the silver medal in the men\u2019s 66-kg freestyle wrestling event in London, says a report in The Hindu, adding that the 29-year-old, battling dehydration, lost to Japan\u2019s Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu 1-3 in the final on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Sushil, India\u2019s flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony, became the country\u2019s most successful individual Olympian with two medals (he had won bronze in the same category four years ago in Beijing). The Najafgarh man\u2019s silver ensured that India finished with its highest ever tally in the Olympics with six medals.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile a report in The Indian Express <\/strong>says that nobody watching Sushil Kumar at London\u2019s ExCel Arena would doubt his courage in gunning for the gold medal, such was his dominant show in making the summit clash. What was a tad iffy, though, was the stomach. A stomach bug the wrestler caught in between his semifinal and final bout squashed India\u2019s hopes of picking a gold medal at the Games, as the resultant weakening meant he was less than at a hundred per cent against Japanese militaryman Tatuhiro Yonemitsu, going down in two rounds. <\/p>\n But the 66-kg grappler, made no excuses. \u201cI had a stomach infection, but difficulty and pain are part of the sport. Without the infection, I could have tried harder. I\u2019d trained well,\u201d he said, happy and proud though at having improved the colour of the medal from Beijing. <\/p>\n Winning India\u2019s fourth medal in wrestling, 60 years after K D Jadhav first picked a wrestling bronze at Helsinki, Sushil also became India\u2019s most successful Olympian with his back-to-back individual medals. The wrestlers equalled the marksmen in claiming two medals at the London Olympics, taking India\u2019s tally to two silver and four bronze, doubling Beijing in numbers, though the gold remained elusive. <\/p>\n According to a report in Hindustan Times, <\/strong>the Indian Olympic story just fell short of going golden on the final day of the London Games. Sushil Kumar fought valiantly, but was far too dehydrated to prevail against his much swifter Japanese opponent Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu. He still ended up earning India its second silver of these Games. And, he became the first Indian to win two individual Olympic medals.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most heart-wrenching bit was just how inconsolable the 29-year-old was after the loss. \u201cI wanted that the national anthem should be heard on the Olympic stage once again. I am sorry I fell short,\u201d he said after his bout, alluding to the fact that only the gold winner gets his anthem played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The prevailing air of negativity, triggered by India\u2019s blow-hot, blow-cold showing in the Olympics, metamorphosed into unfettered delight as Sushil Kumar made it a red-letter day for himself and his nation, winning the silver medal in the men\u2019s 66-kg freestyle wrestling event in London, says a report in The Hindu, adding that the 29-year-old, battling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[280,656,6068],"class_list":["post-9161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers","tag-london-olympics","tag-sushil-kumar","tag-tatuhiro-yonemitsu"],"yoast_head":"\n