Rio de Janeiro: India’s dismal performance in the men’s wrestling continued as Yogeshwar Dutt lost 0-3 in the qualifying round of the 65kg wrestling freestyle event to Mongolia's Ganzorigiin Mandakhnaran at the Rio Olympics, here on Sunday.
The London Olympic bronze-medalist's only hope of making it to the medal rounds lay in his Mongolian opponent reaching the gold medal round. If Mandakhnaran could have made the final, Yogeshwar would have to fight two repechage rounds before entering the bronze medal playoff. However, Mandakhnaran lost 0-6 to Ramonov of Russia in the quarters. It ended Yogeshwar’s hopes of repechage.
Earlier, Sandeep Tomar (57kg freestyle), Ravinder Khatri (85kg Greco-Roman) and Hardeep Singh (98kg Greco-Roman) were all eliminated early.
Meanwhile, it was heartbreak for Indian wrestler Narsingh Yadav as he was slapped with a four-year ban for flunking a dope test after Court of Arbitration for Sports overturned the clean chit given to him by the National Anti-Doping Agency disciplinary panel. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had appealed against the NADA panel’s decision at CAS just three days ahead of his scheduled opening bout at the Olympics.
