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IRON MAN: Sushil Kumar, who won India a wrestling medal after over five decades. |
As soon as the 25-year-old beat Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan, Sushil was in a daze. It took him a few seconds to gather himself and then bring his hands together for a mild clap to celebrate what he had just achieved.
Grateful
Immediately, he thanked his father Diwan Singh, a driver with Delhi's Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. "He has worked really hard for me and without him, I would have never been able to achieve this.
Milk being a very important component of every wrestler's diet, my father would make it a point to go out early morning every day and get me my milk. I'm grateful to him for that," said Sushil at the China Agricultural Gymnasium here, where he had to fight four bouts, three of which were within 90 minutes of each other, to achieve third place in the competition.
Lifeline
Sushil lost his Round One match in the morning to Ukraine's Andriy Stadnik (the eventual finalist), but returned to steal the show in the afternoon, thanks to the introduction of the new format at this edition of the Olympics, the repechage round.
Going by the new format, any wrestler who loses in the first round against one of the two eventual finalists, gets a chance to participate in the repechage round.
In this round, all those (right up to the losing semi-finalists) who have lost to the two eventual finalists compete against each other and the winner is awarded the bronze medal.
So, in the repechage system that began post-3 pm, Sushil first beat USA's Doug Schwab at 3:15pm, then Belarus' Albert Batyrov before getting the better of losing semi-finalist Spiridonov.
Confident
Though many would have counted Sushil out after his Round One defeat, the wrestler and national coach RS Sondhi were confident a second attempt would be handy. "I knew that if Stadnik reached the final, Sushil would get a second chance. And the rest of the guys in the repechage round were beatable," said Sondhi.
Right enough, Stadnik reached the final, which he eventually lost to Turkey's Sahin Ramazan.
Second chance
"The new format gives hardworking wrestlers like Sushil a second opportunity to make up for any mistakes they would have made earlier on. Thankfully, Sushil grabbed the chance with both hands," added Sondhi.
Sushil, meanwhile made a few additions in his 'thank you' list in the form of his earlier coaches Ramphal Mann, Satpal Singh and Yashbir Singh besides of course, the Almighty.
