Grappler Yogeshwar loses in pre-quarters

Indian wrestlers continued to disappoint at London Olympics, as Yogeshwar Dutt lost his pre-quarter-final bout in the men's 60kg freestyle category at the ExCel Arena on Saturday.

Yogeshwar, a gold medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, gave a tough fight to four-time and reigning World champion Besik Kudukhov of Russia but eventually lost 0-3 on classification points.

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Yogeshwar still has a chance to for a bronze medal, provided Kudukhov, the Beijing Games bronze medallist in the 55kg class, reaches the final. It will give the Indian an opportunity to fight in the repechage round.

Amit Kumar (55kg) and Narsingh Pancham Yadav's (74kg) campaign at the Games had ended on Friday night.

Against a world class opponent like Kudukhov, Yogeshwar showed great determination and lost the opening period via a clinch after the round ended scoreless.

In the second period, Yogeshwar had few good chances to score points but failed to capitalise as Kudukhov won it 2-0 on technical points to seal the bout and a place in the quarter-finals.

The day, however, started on a bright note for Yogeshwar as he defeated Anatolie Ilarionovitch Guidea of Bulgaria 3-1 on classification points to sail into the pre-quarter-finals.

In his opening bout, Yogeshwar and his Bulgarian opponent started cautiously and seemed in no mood to give an inch to the other as the opening two-minute period ended scoreless and was decided by the clinch position in which the Bulgarian turned out lucky as he won the toss.

But Yogeshwar came out all guns blazing in the next period and pocketed it 2-0 on technical points to draw parity in the tie.

In the third and deciding period, the Indian continued his dominance over Guidea and won it 5-2 on technical points to seal the bout.