India's Sushil Kumar claimed bronze in the Men's Freestyle Wrestling 66 kilogram class on Wednesday, August 20.
Kumar took three periods to beat Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan 2-1, 0-1 and 1-0.
Spiridonov finished fourth in the 66kg weight class in Athens, while Kumar took 14th place.
Sushil Kumar brought smiles on the faces of millions of Indians across the globe by giving the country its second medal of the Beijing Olympics after Abhinav Bindra brought home the Gold earlier. Indian grappler Sushil, bagged a bronze in wrestling’s 66 kg freestyle event, exactly 56 years after KD Jadhav brought glory at Helsinki in 1952.
Indian grappler Sushil Kumar won the 1st repachage round against American Doug Schwab and pinned down Belarussian Albert Batyrov in the second .The glorious moment came after Sushil outclassed Kazakh grappler Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakastan 2-1, 0-1, 1-0 to win an Olympic Bronze medal.
Sushil won two repechage rounds after he had lost his first grapple in the morning to a far superior Ukrainian Andriy Stadnik.
What is Repachage
Wrestlers who only lose against the two finalists make up a repechage. The repechage matches begin with wrestlers who lost in the first round (including the matches to obtain the ideal number) against one of the two finalists up to the losers in the semi-finals by direct elimination. Winners of the two repechage matches each receive a bronze medal.
Earlier in the day, Sushil proved easy meat for Ukrainian Andriy Stadnik in the first round of 66kg freestyle wrestling event, leaving the Indian grappler's medal hopes in Beijing Olympics hinging on the repechage.
Pitted against a far superior opponent, Sushil managed to score a technical point even though Stadnik led the first period 2-1.
In the second phase, Stadnik simply toyed with Sushil and scored six points and it looked a gross mismatch with the Indian struggling against the dominant Ukrainian.
"Stadnik was far superior but I don't have any regrets about Sushil. He tried his best but just could not do anything," coach PR Sondhi said.
"Stadnik was outstanding in the beginning and I think that was playing on his mind in the last period, Stadnik was just too good for him," he added.
Medal Results 66kg
