India's Wrestler Sushil Kumar lost the finals of men's 66kg freestyle wrestling bout to Japan's Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu and settled for a silver finish on Sunday at the 2012 London Olympics.
The Japananese grappler won the straight two rounds in the final bout for gold, not letting the match to move to the decider. Yonemitsu demonstrated a well defence and offence right from the beginning.
Yonemitsu fashioned a win 1-0 in the first round after he pinned down his rival from India to secure 3 points. At one point in the bout, Sushil managed to throw his Japanese opponent to the ground and gained a point.
It wasn't an easy task for Sushil to clinch Yonemitsu as the latter was quite quick, preventing the Indian wrestler from dominating him.
Sushil's silver is the last medal for India and second in the wrestling category. The final medal tally of India is 6, which includes 4 bronze medals and 2 silver medals. This is Sushil's second Olympic medal after scoring a bronze four years ago in Beijing.
In terms of Sushil's individual performance, India's silver medalist created history by scoring a back-to-back win in a row at the Olympics. He is the first Indian to have recorded two successive wins in the sports event.
Sushil was touted as India's best bet and he lived up to it. Before taking on Yonemitsu, he scored wins against Kazakhstan's Akzhurek Tanatarov, 2008 Beijing gold-medal winner Ramazan Sahin from Turkey and Ikhtiyor Navruzov from Uzbekistan.
Prior to the finals, Sushil Kumar assured a gold or silver medal for the country after taking down Tanatarov in the men's 66kg freestyle wrestling semifinals.
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 before moving to the decider.
In the last nail-biting round, Sushil beat Tanatarov 6-3 to assure the sixth medal for the country.
In quarterfinals bout against Ikhtiyor Navruzov from Uzbekistan, Sushil made his opponent suffocate and recorded a 2-0 win.
The Indian grappler fashioned his first win against 2008 Beijing gold medal winner Ramazan Sahin on the last day of the mega-sporting event, reviving the country's hopes of winning another medal.