Bronze turns silver for Yogeshwar Dutt

Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s bronze medal is set to be upgraded to silver because his opponent, Russia’s Besik Kudukhov, has been tested positive for banned substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The committee, as part of its standard practice, had tested the samples of five wrestlers and it included Uzbekistan’s Artur Taymazov’s who had won the gold medal in the 120 kg category.

“Kudukhov is a silver medallist and Taymazon a gold-medal winner. They will lose their medals. With Kudukhov testing positive, Yogeshwar Dutt of India will get the silver,” said United World Wrestling (UWW). Dutt, as he joins wrestler Sushil Kumar and shooter Vijay Kumar as a silver medalist, tweeted that he wants to dedicate his medal to his country:

https://twitter.com/DuttYogi/status/770475714319646720

And while India is celebrating the two-medal win in this year’s Olympics, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un is highly displeased with the country’s performance in Rio. So much so, that he has threatened to send the non-medal-winning athletes to coal mines. According to reports, the North Korean contingent had been asked to set a target of five gold medals and 12 other medals for this year’s Olympic. But the athletes ended up winning two gold medals and five others.

“Those he feels have let him down are likely to be punished by being moved to poorer quality housing, having their rations reduced and, in the worst-case scenario, being sent to the coal mines as punishment,” said Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University and an authority on the North Korean leadership.