Astana (Kazakhstan): Star wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt on Saturday secured an Olympic quota place for India with a gold-medal finish in the men’s 65kg freestyle category on an otherwise disappointing day for the country’s grapplers at the Asian Olympic Qualification tournament here.
Yogeshwar became the second Indian wrestler after Narsingh Yadav to book a berth for the Rio Games, to be held in August this year. Even before he clinched gold, the 33-year-old had qualified for Olympics by virtue of reaching the final on the second day of the competition. The top two finishers in each weight category here are assured of a Rio berth.
The London Olympics bronze-medallist finished on top of the podium after his rival from China Katai Yeerlanbieke forfeited the gold-medal bout. En route to the final, Yogeshwar put on a dominating show, winning all his three bouts rather comfortably.
Having beaten Kim Ju-song of North Korea in qualification round 8-1, he got the better of Xuan Dinh Nguyen of Vietnam by fall verdict 12-2 in quarters and then followed it up by beating Lee Seung-Chul of Korea 7-2 in his semifinal bout.
The ongoing tournament is the second qualifying event for the Rio Games. The first was last year’s World Championship in Las Vegas, where only Narsingh Yadav bagged a quota place for the country in men’s 74kg freestyle. Yogeshwar had won bronze at the last Olympics in men’s 60kg freestyle but since then moved up to the 65kg class.
