Beijing, August 20
Freestyle wrestler Sushil Kumar scored a stunning win over Kazakhstan's Leonid Spiridonov in the extra 30-second period after the third round of the 66 kg category to clinch a surprise bronze medal, when everyone had lost hope after his first round loss in the morning.

In the morning, Sushil lost to Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine on points. But his slender hopes hung on the results of his conqueror, Stadnik, who went on to reach the final, thereby giving Sushil an extra lease of life as all wrestlers losing to the two finalists then contest the Repechage.

Sushil won all his three bouts in the Repechage to clinch a stunning bronze for India. "I thought I could have won the bout in the morning, but luck was later with me as the Ukraine wrestler reached the final and I got into the Repechage," said the 25-year-old Sushil.

After losing his opening bout, Sushil had to wait for nearly an hour and 40 minutes to know whether he was still alive in the competition.

It was only after Stadnik had beaten Spiridonov in the semi-finals to earn a berth into the finals, that Sushil's place in Repechage was confirmed.

In the first Repechage round, Sushil beat American Doug Schwab, the World No. 5, and then in the second round he moved past Albert Batyrov of Belarus for a final fight against Spiridonov, who was fourth at the last Olympic Games.

In the last and final Repechage bout, Sushil Kumar after being tied 2-2 seemed to be unlucky when his rival drew the lot for a hold to break the tie.

But Sushil defied the normal odds and outpointed Spiridonov in that extra time for a technical point and emerged victorious as the crowd and the coaches in his red corner went up in jubilation.

Sushil, who finished 14th it the 2004 Athens Olympics in the 60 kg category, is the only Indian wrestler to have qualified for the Beijing event from the world championship in Azerbaijan in September. — IANS

Beijing, August 20
Haryana's Vijender Kumar set the ring ablaze tonight as he assured the country its third Olympic medal, a distinction achieved by India for the first time ever since it started taking part in this mega event.

In a tactical 75 kg bout, the 23 year-old pugilist from Bhiwani outpointed his Ecuadorian rival Carlos Gongora 9-4 to script a memorable win. In the process, he became the first Indian boxer ever to make it to the semifinals of the Olympics.

However Vijender's semifinal opponent is world number three Emillio Bayeauix Correa (Cuba) and the Indian sounded confident of beating him too.

''My aim is to win the gold, this is just the beginning,'' he said after the quarter final bout. ''I was well prepared for the fight, I had lost the first round in the 2004 Athens Olympic and that rankled me a lot, so I prepared well.''

Earlier, Jitender faltered at the final hurdle and missed the Olympic medal by a whisker, losing his quarterfinal bout in the 51kg event here today.

Vijender looked a winner from the start as he entered the ring. Nothing he did went wrong and he not only stonewalled Carlos, but also took points with some stunning and clever punches which rattled his opponent.

The handsome Jat from Haryana took time to sort out his opponent and earned his first point aftyer 57 seconds and earned another with a straighter one 13 seconds before the end of the round.

Carlos tried to defend, but Vijender did not let his guard down and did not go overboard. He kept sparring at his rival and then came up with two stuning hooks before conceding one point to his rival as he ended the second round 2-1 to take his tally to 4-1.

The third round was simply dominated by the Indian who collected three points as Carlos ran around the ring to avoid punishment.

The Haryana boxer went as per the prepared script and did not play to the galleries He did not waste energy and waited for the openings and then unsettled Carlos with lethal straighter punches.

Leading 7-2 at the end of the penultimate round, Vijender slowed down in the last round and this ploy paid dividends. Carlos went flat out on the attack but could not break his rival's defence.

The fighters shared two points each as the Haryana boxer strode into the history books of Indian sports. — UNI

Chandigarh, August 20
On behalf of the Haryana Olympic Association and that of the sports fraternity, Dr. M S Malik, secretary general, HOA, and former president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) conveyed his heartiest congratulations to Sushil Kumar for winning bronze medal in freestyle freestyle 66 kgs wrestling at Beijing today.

Dr Malik mentioned that Sushil was a wrestler par excellence, emerging the second bronze medal winner for the country in the wrestling history of the nation.

Malik said that Rajiv Tomar, freestyle wrestler in 120 kgs category, was a medal prospect for the nation. Tomar is scheduled to fight tomorrow.

Golden boy Michael Phelps’ record for winning the most gold medals at a single Olympics might have won him accolades from all corners of the globe, but he has yet to be congratulated by his own father, believably due to their strained relationship. The swimming ace’s dad Fred has not had a single conversation with him ever since the former left for Beijing.

However, Fred insists that his son has such a busy schedule that it is very difficult to contact him. “He’s so busy, I’m sure not even his agent can get a hold of him,” the New York Post quoted Fred as saying outside his home in the Baltimore suburb of Linthicum Heights, upon being asked why he had not yet made any attempt to congratulate his record-setting son.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) insisted the low number of positive doping cases announced at the Beijing Olympics was proof that they were winning, not losing, their battle against drug cheats. IOC communications director Giselle Davies told a news conference that 4,133 tests had been carried out during the Games, but only four positive doping cases have been revealed and none of those has involved any of the 205 gold medal winners.

Indeed the only podium finisher caught doping in Beijing to date has been North Korea’s Kim Jong-Su, a minor medalist in two shooting events. Before the Games began, IOC president Jacques Rogge said he expected 30 to 40 positive tests based on what he said was “an extrapolation from Athens in 2004 where there were 26 from 3,500 tests and here there will be 4,500 tests”.

Basketball superstar Yao Ming urged China’s hurdling hero Liu Xiang to put his Olympic nightmare behind him and to strive for greater success in the future. Yao, who has led China’s basketball team to an Olympic quarterfinal berth, sent a short text message to Liu’s coach Sun Haiping and urged the hurdler to put the event behind him, China’s Olympic Committee said on its website.

“I saw the race, it is very regrettable,” Yao said. “What determines the success of an athlete’s career is the kind of high level overall results he achieves during the career. You have to forget this race. The road is long, keep going.” Liu (25), the defending Olympic champion and former world record holder, has already apologised for letting so many people down and also sought to reassure his fans they had not seen the last of him.

A Dubai-based Indian’s song hailing the spirit of the Olympics is now a hit in China with radio stations there airing the number. When Hani Raman (28), who works at Al Ghurair Foods in Jebel Ali near here, recorded the English number “Beijing Olympics” two years ago in Kerala little did he know that it would one day be popular among the Chinese.

“Some of the journalists, who are in Beijing to cover the Olympics, told me about my song becoming popular in China,” Raman told reporters here. “It was exciting. I never thought that Chinese people would like my song.” The lyrics of the song were penned by Raman’s history teacher M.C. Vashisht of Kozhikode’s Malabar Christian College and the music was composed by fellow student Sai Giridhar.

Amputee swimmer Natalie Du Toit has made plenty of waves ever since she qualified for the Olympics with a fourth-place finish at the world championships in May in Spain. Things did not go quite so well as the 24-year-old competed against able-bodied athletes Wednesday at the Beijing Olympics in 10 km open water swimming and came 16th.

But Du Toit said, “For me the Olympics is a dream come true. There were people who said it is not possible. But you don’t have to be the best, to get gold,” she insisted. One adjustment had to be made, however, in order to become an Olympian. Du Toit, who started swimming at the age of six, had to leave the 50m pool for the open water because the missing leg was too much of a handicap there with all the turns. “There is no difference now. In the first races they would always let me lead and then swim past me in the end. It is like the Paralympics, we are all good friends,” she said.

Beijing, August 20
Pugilist Jitender Kumar went down fighting against Russia's Georgy Balakshin in the quarterfinals of the men's 51 kg category, dashing India's medal hopes in the Olympic Games here today.

Jitender missed a bronze after he lost 11-15 against the Russian opponent. The boxer from Bhiwani started aggressively and the scores were pretty even till the second round when the Indian was trailing just by one point (6-7).

But the third round proved to be decisive as a flurry of punches from the Russian earned him as many as six points against only two to the credit of the Indian.

Jitender could not make up for the lost ground as the Russian resorted to defensive tactics, making scoring very difficult for his opponent in the last round.

Dambulla, August 20
Zaheer Khan, with four wickets for 21, made it elementary for India. Yet, the tourists made heavy weather of chasing down 143 runs.

Only a 50-run partnership for the sixth wicket between skipper Mahendra Dhoni and Subramaniam Badrinath finally facilitated a three-wicket victory in the second ODI against Sri Lanka.

The outcome levelled the five-match series 1-1. But at 75 for five, India were down to their last pair of specialist batsmen before Dhoni (39) and Badrinath (27 not out) prevented further embarrassment.

A better crowd mushroomed at the International Cricket Stadium in the vicinity of the UNESCO protected 85 B.C. Buddhist cave temples.

And they were understandably enthused when Nuwan Kulasekara had Irfan Pathan caught behind and Suresh Raina leg before wicket with the new ball.

Yuvraj Singh was, again, bemused by the complexities of Ajantha Mendis; and perished lbw. Thilan Thushara - who had earlier contributed a commendable 44 runs with the willow - thereafter, struck twice in an over to remove Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma - the latter a trifle unfortunate in being adjudged lbw, just as Sanath Jayasuriya had similarly suffered in the morning.

Kohli, after overcoming an uncertain start, pierced the covers off the back and then front foot in an over from Kulasekara. And he grew in confidence to cut and slog sweep the illusive Mendis to the boundary.

Dhoni promoted himself to number five, but lost Kohli (37) to a soft dismissal. Eventually, excellent running between the wickets by the skipper and Badrinath, who was untroubled by the variety of Mendis, ensured success.

With Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir missing, it was quite a makeshift batting composition. But contrary to the previous engagement, Dhoni elected to field.

There was movement off the seam; and the experienced Khan exploited this to the full. He essentially bowled off-cutters, which slanted in to left-handers and away from right-handers.

The southpaws, Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya were bowled and lbw respectively; whereas Mahela Jayawardene was caught at first slip after a juggle and Chamara Kapugedera was caught behind - both in the sixth over with the total stationary on 10.

Scoreboard

Sri Lanka

Jayasuriya lbw Zaheer 13

Sangakkara b Zaheer 2

M. Jayawardene c Yuvraj b Zaheer 2

Kapugedera c Dhoni b Zaheer 0

Silva c Kohli b Praveen 0

Dilshan c Badrinath b Pathan 16

Kulasekera c Badrinath b Praveen 25

Thushara c Kohli b Praveen 44

Mendis c & b Harbhajan 0

Fernando c Kohli b Harbhajan 12

Muralitharan not out 11

Extras (lb-6, w-11) 17

Total (all out, 38.3 overs) 142

FoW: 1-4, 2-10, 3-10, 4-11, 5-33, 6-44, 7-118, 8-118, 9-122

Bowling: Praveen Kumar 10-2-34-3, Zaheer Khan 9.5-3-21-4, Munaf Patel 6-1-24-0, I. Pathan 5-0-21-1, Harbhajan 5.4-0-26-2, Yuvraj 2-0-10-0.

India

I. Pathan c Sangakkara b Kulasekera 5

Kohli c Kapugedera b Thushara 37

Raina lbw Kulasekera 1

Yuvraj lbw Mendis 20

Dhoni b Fernando 39

Rohit Sharma lbw Thushara 0

Badrinath not out 27

Harbhajan lbw Mendis 1

Zaheer not out 2

Extras (b-3, lb-4, w-2, nb-2) 11

Total (7 wkts, 39.4 overs) 143

FoW: 1-8, 2-16, 3-52, 4-75, 5-75, 6-135, 7-139

Bowling: Kulasekera 9-2-26-2, Thushara 7-1-32-2, Mendis 10-1-22-2, Fernando 5-0-25-1, Muralitharan 8.4-0-31-0.

Player of the match: Zaheer Khan (India).

Like they did in the Test series the Indian team has come back to level the one-day series by winning the second game.

The question though is will they be able to keep the tempo or like in the Test series lose their way and with it the one-day series as well.

The manner of this win does suggest that there is plenty of work to be done and mainly by the batsmen.

They made heavy weather of chasing a pretty simple target and it was only the calm of skipper Dhoni and the assurance of debutant Badrinath that got them over the line.

Badrinath has been knocking on the doors of international cricket for a long, long time but for some reason or the other it was being ignored while other faint knocking was being heard.

It is not the number of runs he got in this tight game but the way he kept his composure despite enormous pressure that was most impressive.

He was almost a last minute inclusion after Gambhir pulled out and by being slotted at number 7 he was hardly being given an opportunity.

Just imagine if India had batted first and got off to a good start with most of the top order firing.

He would have had to bat in the final overs and be expected to throw his bat and if he had not done that would have been branded as a selfish player and of course, if he had failed would have not got too many chances.

That is the problem with Indian cricket where statistics and not the circumstances in which the player has performed matter.

Batsmen batting down the order have little or no chance of putting up a big score simply because they hardly get overs to bat unless there is a total collapse of the top order.

Even here if he does help in stabilising the innings and building a partnership of sorts to get the team to a defendable total he will be the one to be dropped while the top order who actually have let the team down survive.

With Kohli also getting a good start it will be interesting to see who will be dropped when Gambhir gets fit.

If Zahara Khan ripped the heart out of the Sri Lankan batting, no less a performer was Praveen Kumar who chipped in with three wickets and kept the pressure up.

Here is a bowler who has regularly provided the breakthroughs for the Indian team but is a convenient scapegoat when some bowler has to be left out.

With four seam bowlers in his team Dhoni's hand may have been forced into bowling first after winning the toss but it worked brilliantly.

Harbhajan ensured that there was not much of a tail end backlash though Murali's merry efforts got Sri Lanka a bonus 20 runs.

Unfortunately for him and Mendis, they were 20 runs too short even after that and that made the final difference. — PMG