NEW DELHI: Yogeshwar Dutt has a fair chance of his bronze from the 2012 London Olympics being upgraded to gold with Azerbaijan’s Toghrul Asgarov, according to sources, testing positive on a reanalysis of his urine sample collected at that Games.
Dutt’s medal is already set to be upgraded to silver after the runner-up, Besik Kudukhov of Russia, tested positive in the reanalysis done as part of the World Anti-doping Agency’s (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) legacy testing programme.
Wrestling experts in India are unsure about the rules that would be applied in determining if Dutt, or Scott Coleman of US (bronze medallist from the other repechage group who lost to Asgarov in the semis), would be upgraded to gold.
According to an international referee, Dutt has a fair chance as “he did better in his bronze medal bout compared to the American”. His comment was on the basis of the ranking system employed by the sport’s world governing body, United World Wrestling (UWW).
DUTT’S SUPERIORITY
{{/usCountry}}DUTT’S SUPERIORITY
{{/usCountry}}Dutt beat Ri Jong-Myong of North Korea in the repechage bronze match, winning 2-1 (0-1, 1-0, 6-0). Coleman beat Kenichi Yumoto of Japan 2-1 (0-1, 3-0, 3-1).
“When you compare the two bouts, it is evident Yogeshwar has scored more technical points and hence ranks higher. When we rank wrestlers in a competition, technical points scored from throws and holds are taken into consideration,” said the official. “Though the US wrestler lost to the eventual gold medallist, I feel the UWW will take into consideration the technical points and then decide who gets gold.”
However, there is ambiguity here and Indian officials have their fingers crossed. “I also had a word with the Wrestling Federation of India top brass. We are all hoping it will be Yogeshwar.”
But Coleman lost to the winner and will naturally stake a claim if Asgarov loses his medal.
In competitions, wrestlers are divided into two pools with the winners advancing to the final. Those who lose to the finalists enter the repechage bouts and fight for bronze.
Dutt lost 0-2 to Kudokhov in the pre-quarters (0-1, 0-2) and then fought his way through repechage to win bronze. Coleman lost to Asgarov (0-2) by a wider margin (0-1, 0-4) and then won his bronze-medal match. Coleman, by virtue of reaching the semi-final, had to fight only once while Dutt had to win three bouts.
The longer route to bronze may not be a factor but what might help Dutt is that he lost to Kudhokov by a 0-3 technical points margin while Coleman lost to Asgarov 0-5. In their respective bronze matches, Dutt scored seven technical points against his opponent’s one (7-1). Coleman won 6-2.
Numbers give Dutt an advantage but wrestling prides itself in deciding the winner by straightforward technical edge on the mat which even a layman can understand.
Now that this uncertainty has come up, UWW might be forced to take a subjective stand to avoid controversy.
While the Indian wrestling fraternity is hoping Dutt gets the gold, the doping episodes have cast a dark shadow on the sport.