Jai Hind: Proud to be an Indian

Little known Sushil Kumar realized the hopes of a million people all across India by winning the Bronze Medal in the freestyle 66KG category. After bindra’s gold, this is the second medal that has fallen to the Indian contingent.
Out of the 56 athletes that the Indian contingent comprised of, Sushil Kumar came out of nowhere to win the Bronze medal by beaten his opponent Leonid Spiridinov from Kazakhstan. After Bindra’s Gold in the 10m rifle event, this is the second medal that India has won. The Beijing Olympics performance is reminiscent of the 1952 Helsinki games when India had won two medals as well. KD Jadhav had done India proud by winning the Bronze and the Indian hockey team had also gone on to win the gold medal. In the last 112 years of Olympic history, the Indian medal tally has neve gone above 2 medals. Only in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics had won two medals. KD Jadhav was the first Indian to win an individual medal.
But Sushil Kumar the young man from Patiala had a tough fight against the Kazakhstan wrestler and went to create history. For a country that has been the biggest underperformers in the Olympics, the two medals that have fallen to India have come as a shot in the arm for an enthusiastic billion plus country. Before his bronze medal play off against the Kazakhstan wrestler, he had beaten the wrestler from the United States of America. In his second repecharge round had beaten the European Champion from Belarus.
Sushil Kumar’s win has come as an unexpected medal when it was not expected much. He has come from absolutely no where and pulled this off. It is a day for India to be proud of and a great day for Indian wrestling. The 1952 medal was again unexpected and had brought the attention of the world to India. And Sushil Kumar’s feat has certainly brought Indian wrestling to the forefront. Indian wrestler Yogeshwar dutt had very narrowly missed on the bronze in the dying seconds of the bout but Sushil kumar went one step ahead and got the coveted medal.
There was perhaps no hype and attention given to the wrestlers when the Indian contingent had take off, but Sushil kumar has created history today. May be the boxers will take a cue from Sushil kumar and will also do the same. Jitendra Kumar and Vijender are also in the Bonze medal play off and maybe they will realize the Indian dream of having more than two medals. It is just not the Olympic medal, this is a great moment in the history of Indian sports and we can see sports taking centre stage in the years to come.

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