Tomar bows out

Sushil Kumar8217;s bronze medal winning effort did not have much of an effect on fellow wrestler Rajiv Tomar, who crashed out of the 120kg freestyle event of the Beijing Olympics with a comprehensive defeat here Thursday.

The Indian grappler fought a slipshod qualifying round bout against Steve Mocco and the American hardly broke a sweat as he blanked Rajiv 4-0 to show him the exit door. And if there was any hope of a Sushil-like turnaround, it went up in smoke with Mocco failing to reach the final. The American lost his semi-final bout against Russian Bakhtiyar Akhmedov 1-3. Had Mocco reached the final, Rajiv would have played in the repechage and could have been in the hunt for a bronze medal.

On Wednesday, Sushil too had lost his opening round bout against Andriy Stadnik but with the Ukrainian going on to reach the final 8212; where he lost the bout to settle for the silver 8212; the Indian was handed an opportunity to compete in repechage rounds.

Much to everyone8217;s surprise, Sushil went on to win all his repechage round bouts to fetch India8217;s second individual medal in the Beijing Olympics, following Abhinav Bindra8217;s shooting gold.