London - Indian Olympic Association (IOA) secretary general Randhir Singh Saturday said wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt‘s bronze medal that took the country’s tally to five, from the London Games made it India’s best ever performance at the Olympics.
Randhir said Yogeshwar’s performance will now inspire his childhood buddy Sushil Kumar, Beijing Games bronze medallist, to go for his second Olympic medal Sunday, when the Games end.
The 29-year-old Yogeshwar brought home the country’s third ever medal in Olympic wrestling after
Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav and Sushil Kumar. Jadhav and Kumar had also won bronze medals in 1952 Helsinki and 2008 Beijing Games.
“I am thrilled with Yogeshwar’s win. This has been just incredible. Five medals at The Games. This has never happened before. This medal will definitely inspire and boost Sushil’s morale to win India’s sixth medal tomorrow,” said Singh.
“I am very happy. We have won medals in every major event we expected to win except archery. Our campaign at the Olympics has been improving over the year. Leander (Paes) won one (1996), then it was Karnam Malleswari (2000), then we saw (Rajyavardhan Singh Rahore) bringing the silver. Then in Beijing we won three medals and this time now at least five. So things are looking up,” he added.
“Among other good performances we reached the quarterfinals of men’s badminton and (Joydeep) Karmakar almost won a bronze in shooting. This will generate new sportspersons who will go on to win more medals for the country”, said Randhir.
You guys at IOA had very minimal role to play in these medal victories. 4 of the 5 medal winners are from Olympic Gold Quest and if they had not been under them, you would have ruined their lives just like you did to the Indian gymnastics team, specifically to Mr. Ashish Kumar. the moment you guys at IOA are dismissed from your position, our nation would start winning more medals. Your egos and infighting are not acceptable anymore and you are just a disgrace to this nation’s sporting abilities.