Then, some media reports claimed that not only silver medallist but gold medallist in Dutt’s category – Asgarov – had also failed a dope test.
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India’s wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s 2012 Olympics bronze medal had been upgraded after the original silver medallist Besik Kudukhov of Russian Federation failed a dope test.
The experienced wrestler from Haryana had failed to shine at the recently-concluded Rio 2016 Olympics.
But the United World Wrestling (UWW) confirmed that The Azerbaijan wrestler did not fail any dope test.
The confirmation by United World Wrestling (UWW) put at rest days of speculation over the possibility of a double upgrade for Yogeshwar, who is likely to be given the silver medal after Russian Besik Kudukhov, who died in a vehicle crash in 2013, was reported to have tested positive for a banned substance. This gave rise to the speculation that the Indian wrestler might get the gold medal.
Before that, Yogeshwar, in a tweet confirmed that his medal has been upgraded from bronze to silver as the late silver medallist Russia’s Besik Kudukhov (60 kg) has been stripped of his medal for testing positive for doping.
However, an official confirmation on whether Yogeshwar would get the silver is still awaited, as the Indian’s dope test from the 2012 Games is yet to be cleared before he could be handed the upgraded medal. Yogeshwar also acknowledged Besik as a “great” wrestler and he still respected him as a wrestler.
He stated that it was saddening to see the Russian’s sample being tested positive after his death, adding that allowing Kudukhov’s family to keep the Olympic medal would be respectful for them.
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As per the new WADA’s norms, samples taken for dope tests of athletes from worldwide tournaments are deep freezed for up to 10 years in order to allow the use of advanced technology, available with the passage of time to catch doping violations.
