London Olympics: Indian wrestlers Amit Kumar, Narsingh Yadav out
India's Amit Kumar went down to Bulgaria's Radoslav Marinov Velikov in the men's 55kg repechage round 2 of the wrestling competition.
Young Indian wrestler Amit Kumar was done in by bad luck as he was at the receiving end in repachage from Bulgarian Radoslav Marinov Velikov in the 55kg category at the London Olympics on Friday.
After losing his quarter-final to a strong Georgian Vladimer Khinchegashvili, Amit Kumar was kept waiting. However, as the Georgian won, Amit got a fresh lease of life.
Earlier, 19-year-old Amit had defeated Iran's in the pre-quarterfinals.
The repachage bout was much awaited as it was being held in an action packed evening in between the semi-finals.
Amit versus Radoslav had all the trappings of a thriller as both the grapplers were not in a mood to give up.
However, as luck would have it, Amit did not enjoy a good time at the end of each round. As per the rules, at the end of each round if neither wrestler has scored a point, then the referee does a small lottery as to which person gets a chance to do a "clinch."
In clinch, the wrestler gets the chance to go on the offensive. And in two successive rounds, despite fans egging on Amit at the Excel centre, he lost the "clinch" to Radoslav. And as a result it left Amit out of the competition.
"I am overall happy with my performance. Earlier wrestlers used to lose in the first round and now in repachage I have fought with seasoned wrestlers" said Amit later.
Disastrous campaign for Narisngh Yadav
Earlier in the day, in the 74kg weight category, Narisngh Pancham Yadav's campaign turned out to be a disastrous one as he lost in the first round to Mattthew Judah Gentry of Canada.
If Narsingh was hoping his opponent would progress to the final so that he could get a chance for the repechage, which is like an elimination, he had no such luck.
Earlier on, Amit was simply not good enough for the Georgian opponent Vladimer Khinchegashvili. Vladimer won the first match 4-0, despite some doubts over the referee's decision.
The Indian did get a "clinch" in the first round but could not make use of it.
In the second round, Amit tried hard but was done in by a stronger opponent.
All eyes will now be on Yogeshwar Dutt in the 60kg category and Sushil on Sunday.
These are the last chances for India to win another medal at the London Olympics.