London Olympics 2012: Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt a win away from bronze

India's Yogeshwar Dutt defeated Masoud Esmaeilpoorjouybari of Iran in the repechage round 2 of the 60kg wrestling competition of the London Olympics on Saturday.

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India's Yogeshwar Dutt (in red)
India's Yogeshwar Dutt (in red) competes against Masoud Esmaeilpoorjouybari of Iran. Photo: AP

India's Yogeshwar Dutt defeated Masoud Esmaeilpoorjouybari of Iran in the repechage round 2 of the 60kg wrestling competition of theLondon Olympicson Saturday.

With this win Yogeshwar is just a win away from bronze medal. This was his fourth bout of the day in which he won three and lost one. First, he beat Bulgaria's Anatolie llarionovitch Guidea in the qualification, but ended up losing to Russia's Besik Kudukhov in the pre-quarterfinals. Later in the repechage round one Yogeshwar defeated Puerto Rico's Franklin Gomez Matos.

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However, Dutt's Olympic medal hopes were rekindled as he qualified for the repechage round of the men's 60kg wrestling event after Russian Besik Kudukhov, who had defeated the Indian in the pre-quarterfinal.

Yogeshwar must thank World Champion Kudukhov for keeping alive his bronze medal hope.

The Russian, bronze medallist at the 2008 Beijing Games, won his quarter-final match 3-1 against Esmaeilpoorjouybari and semi-final 3-0 against Myong Ri to qualify for the final. Kudukhov will face Azerbaijan's Toghrul Asgarov in the title clash.

Yogeshwar had lost his pre-quarterfinal bout to Kudukhov. The Indian survived just two periods before losing 3-0 to the reigning World Champion, who was also a bronze medallist at the 2008 Beijing Games.