Dutt’s London 2012 silver medal will not be turning into gold, says wrestling body

NEW DELHI: Grappler Yogeshwar Dutt’s London Olympics bronze medal will not be upgraded to gold as the top-place finisher in men’s 60kg freestyle has not tested positive

NEW DELHI: Grappler Yogeshwar Dutt’s London Olympics bronze medal will not be upgraded to gold as the top-place finisher in men’s 60kg freestyle has not tested positive for any banned substance, wrestling’ s governing body said on Tuesday.

HT Image

The confirmation by United World Wrestling (UWW) put at rest days of speculation over the possibility of a double upgrade for Yogeshwar, who is likely to be given the silver medal after Russian Besik Kudukhov, who died in a car crash in 2013, was reported to have tested positive for a banned substance.

The UWW said in a tweet that Olympic gold medallist Togrul Asgarov of Azerbaijan “has never been in violation of UWW’s anti-doping policy”.

However, UWW did not say anything on the possibility of Dutt’s bronze being upgraded to silver.

Yogeshwar took the development in his stride.

“I am happy that the gold stays with him (Asgarov) as he was the winner in London. One works really hard to win a medal, so a clean chit is good for him,” he told HT.

“I had won bronze and that will stay with me. I don’t support those who dope but I don’t want to get any benefit from someone failing.”