Sushil Beats Tanatarov to Enter Final, Assures Gold or Silver for India

India's best bet at the 2012 London Olympics Sushil Kumar assured a gold or silver medal for the country after taking down Kazakhstan's Akzhurek Tanatarov in the men's 66kg freestyle wrestling semifinals on Sunday.

His opponent in the final is Japan's Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu.

Sushil beat Tanatarov 3-0 in the first round. In the second, the Kazakh wrestler had the upper-hand, finishing 3-0 against his Indian opponent and moving to the decider.

In the last nail-biting round, Sushil beat Tanatarov 6-3 to assure the sixth medal for the country.

Before taking on Tanatarov in the semifinals, Sushil scored wins against the 2008 Beijing gold medal winner Ramazan Sahin from Turkey and Ikhtiyor Navruzov from Uzbekistan.

So far in all the bouts Sushil has been in the best of his form. Even as he basks in the victories, he shoulders great expectations of bringing a gold medal home, which has eluded almost all the athletes in the Indian contingent at the 2012 London Olympics.

London Olympics 2012: India's Sushil Beat Uzbekistan's Navruzov to Enter Semifinals

Earlier, Sushil Kumar stormed into the semi-finals beating Ikhtiyor Navruzov from Uzbekistanin themen's 66kg freestyle wrestling quarterfinalson Sunday.

Sushil beat Navruzov 3-0 in the first round. In the second, it was a tie as both grapplers stood firm against each other. Sushilpinned down Navruzov immediately after the beginning of the second period, but the latter managed to throw the Indian grappler to the ground at the last minute and the bout moved into the deciding round, in which Sushil recorded a 2-0 win against Navruzov.

Before taking on Uzbekistan wrestler in the quarterfinals, Sushil fashioned a win against the 2008 Beijing gold medal winner Ramazan Sahin from Turkey and entered the quarters.