Can Yogeshwar Dutt end India's Rio campaign with a third medal?

August 21, 2016

Aug 21: On the final day of Rio Olympics, Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt has a shot at fetching India one last medal at the Games.

yogeshwar

Representing India in his fourth and most probably final Olympics, Yogeshwar is widely regarded a strong gold medal contender in the men's 65kg freestyle event on Sunday. India have already clinched a bronze and silver medal through wrestler Sakshi Malik and shuttler PV Sindhu, and Yogeshwar stands a good chance of bagging India its first gold since Abhinav Bindrain 2008.

In the middle of the controversy surrounding fellow Narsingh Yadav and his eviction from Rio, Yogeshwar will be trying hard not to let the episode affect him. Yogeshwar was in the village when Narsingh was handed a 4-year suspension by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) for failing a dope test after WADA challenged the clean chit given to him by NADA. He has been very vocal of his support from Narsingh and was in fact, present in the same building of the Games village.

Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar has extended his best wishes to Yogeshwar. "We have been friends since childhood. All my best wishes are with Yogeshwar. I hope he wins the gold medal. The entire nation is standing behind him," Sushil told ANI.

Yogeshwar's road to Rio Olympics hasn't been the easiest. He's had to recover from three surgeries in 2015 to book a ticket to the Brazilian capital city. Provided he ends up with a medal, it will be the second time in history of India that an athlete from the country has had a podium finish in back-to-back Olympics. In India's final event of Olympics, Yogeshwar will be in for a challenging task when he faces world champion Frank Chamizo of Italy and Russia's Soslan Ramonov on Sunday.

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