Wrestler Dutt eliminated in second round

By V. Krishnaswamy, Beijing, Aug 19 : Yogeshwar Dutt won his first round, but then lost to a more experienced wrestler in the second to crash out of the Olympic men's 60 kg freestyle competition here Tuesday.

The Indian, who won his first round against Kazhak Baurzhan Orazgaliyev 3-1, lost the next bout to Japanese Kenichi Yumoto by the same margin in the quarterfinal at CAU Gymnasium.

With Yumoto himself losing the quarterfinal to European champion Vasyl Fedoryshyn of Ukraine, Dutt did not get into the repechage and that ended his Olympic campaign.

Talking of his first round, Dutt said: "It was a good competition (bout). I did not attack enough in the first period, but the score at the end was good. I was confident about the next bout, but things did not work out my way."

A second win for Dutt would have put him in the semifinal from where he could have got into the repechage for a bronze, of which there are two in each category.

All wrestlers losing to the eventual finalists get a second chance in repechage to fight for a bronze. Since Dutt lost to Yumoto, who failed to make the final, the Indian was eliminated before the medal round.

Fedoryshyn would clash against Mallet Batirov of Russia for the gold medal.

India's remaining two freestyle wrestlers are Sushil Kumar (66 kg) and Rajiv Tomar (120 kg).