Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt's bronze medal in the 60 kg freestyle event at the 2012 Olympics in London will be upgraded to silver, reports said. Russia's Besik Kudukhov – who died in a car crash the following year – was found guilty of using banned substances, which will mean losing his silver medal, leading to Dutt's upgrade.
The Indian wrestler also took to Twitter to confirm the news.
आज सुबह पता चला की मेरा olympic medal upgrade हो कर Silver medal हो गया है। ये मेडल भी देशवासियों को समर्पित हैं🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/S6qxNHW9Po
— Yogeshwar Dutt (@DuttYogi) August 30, 2016
The test on Kudukhov was repeated four years afterwards, using technology that can now test samples as old as ten years. Uzbekistan’s Artur Taymazov, who won the gold in the 120-kg category at Beijing in 2008, was also found guilty and will be stripped off his medal.
Kudukhov had defeated Dutt at the pre-quarter-final stage and gone on to win the silver. Dutt thus became the second wrestler from India to win a silver medal after Sushil Kumar, who won silver in the 66 kg freestyle event at the same Games.