NEW DELHI: Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt's bronze medal from the London Olympics is upgraded to silver after reports emerged that the silver medallist from the 2012 Games- deceased Besik Kudukhov of Russia - has been stripped of his medal for using banned substance.
As per Russian agency, flowrestling.org, the four-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist Kudukhov, who had died in a car crash in 2013 in southern Russia, has been found positive for dope test conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
As a result, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men's 60kg freestyle category in London Games, moved up from bronze to silver and joined Sushil Kumar as another silver medallist from the 2012 Olympics.
In a tweet, Yogeshwar Dutt confirmed that his medal has been upgraded from bronze to silver. However, there has been no official confirmation yet.
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
On whether and when Yogeshwar, who had bowed out in the first round of men's 65kg freestyle at the recently concluded Rio Olympic Games, would be handed a silver medal will be confirmed only when the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) gets it in writing from the World body (UWW).