Yogeshwar Dutt’s sample will be tested before upgradation to silver

TIL Desk Sports/ Star India wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt will have to wait to know whether his bronze medal from the 2012 London Olympics is upgraded to silver till the time his sample is cleared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Reports emerged that the grappler’s bronze would be upgraded to silver after second-place finisher of the London Games — late Besik Kudukhov of Russia — was stripped off his medal for failing a dope test. An official confirmation is still awaited and a top Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) official today told that even Yogeshwar’s dope test from the 2012 Games has to be cleared before he could be handed the medal.

“Yogeshwar’s tests are also being conducted and once his dope test comes out clean, then only he will be handed the silver medal,” the official said on the condition of anonymity. As per WADA’s revised norms, samples taken for dope tests from international tournaments are now been stored in deep freeze up to 10 years in order to allow the use of advanced technology, available with the passage of time, to catch the dope cheats to ensure that “the clean athletes get justice even if it comes a bit late”.