Yogeshwar relinquishes upgraded silver medal from London Olympics

New Delhi: Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt Wednesday relinquished his upgraded silver medal from the London 2012 Olympics.

Yogeshwar said on Twitter that the late Russian wrestler Besik Kudukhov's family can keep the silver medal.

Yogeshwar's bronze medal from the 2012 Games was upgraded to silver after second-place finisher Kudukhov was stripped off his medal for failing a dope test.

Yogeshwar also tweeted that Kudukhov was a good friend of his and he still respected him.

As per Russian agency, flowrestling.org, the four-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist Kudukhov, who had died in a car crash in 2013 in southern Russia, was found to have used a banned substance in a test conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). As a result, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men's 60kg freestyle category in the London Games, joined Sushil Kumar as the other silver medalist wrestler from the 2012 Olympics. Yogeshwar, who had bowed out in the first round of men's 65kg freestyle at the recently concluded Rio Olympics, had lost to Kudukhov in the pre-quarterfinals at London. But once the Russian advanced to the final, Yogeshwar got another chance in the repechage round and went on to win bronze.