Sushil won silver as India’s medal tally touches 6 in London Olympic

London: Wrestler Sushil Kumar on Sunday created history by becoming the first Indian to win back-to-back Olympic medals but the coveted gold medal eluded him as he lost the men’s freestyle 66 kg category final to his Japanese opponent rather tamely at the Excel Arena.

Sushil trailed 0-1 after the first round and was out of the contest within 30 seconds of the second round when Yonemitsu penetrated his defence, lifted him up and banged him to fetch a decisive three points’ lead. “I am content with silver. My son had worked hard to earn this,” Kumar’s mother, Kamla Devi said after the bout.

“With every passing performance of Indian wrestlers, the expectations levels were going up. Nobody under performed. In some cases, they proved to be unlucky,” said Savi Singh, wife of Sushil Kumar, talking on phone from London.

The Haryana government announced a reward of 1.5 crore and land to set up a wrestling academy in Sonepat. “Sushil was meant for gold. It was not his day,” said Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Sushil Kumar, a vegetarian, belongs to Baprola village in South West Delhi. He was inspired to take up wrestling by his cousin Sandeep and his father, himself a wrestler.

With the addition of Sushil’s silver medal, India completed their engagements in the 30th edition of the Olympics with a record haul of six medals — two silver and four bronze — but the gold medal could not be won by any one.

In Beijing, India had won one gold and two bronze medals.

Sushil, who was cheered by the flag-waving Indian spectators, was down with dehydration when he took the mat for the final and that had a bearing on his performance.

“I had a stomach problem just after the semi-final, because of the dehydration. I lost weight and was feeling a little weak. But we have got a silver medal and we will try for gold medal in the next Olympics,” Sushil said after the medal ceremony.

“I had said about 15 days ago that we will do well. It was a question of what will be the colour of medals. I am happy that Yogeshwar won a bronze and our performance will keep improving,” he said.