"Mata-pita, guru, my country, my flag, my national anthem," - immediately after performing the greatest feat of his life, Sushil Kumar, India's only multiple Olympic Games medal-winner in individual events, spoke words that evoked the highest ideals of the Indian consciousness.

Extreme nationalism isn't considered very good form by many in this open and opening world; those who publicly declare affiliation to this and other lofty ideals are often looked at with distrust. You also realise that those who talk of "mata-pita, guru, my country, my flag, my national anthem" often belong to the unfashionable, unsophisticated, un-hep segments of our society.

We've fallen on cynical days. But when Sushil Kumar speaks of his ideals, it's impossible to distrust him - you believe, and want to believe, that there's a ring of honesty in his words. In a very candid admission, a few days ago, India's tennis hero Leander Paes said, "I play for my inner circle." He was right - sportspersons play for recreation, and to do better than their opponents. This is truer for freelancer tennis stars of the world. But the media and people, lovers of war without guns, convert all sportspersons into warriors.

After winning India's sixth medal of London 2012, and the second silver, he said today that he goes into the ring to bring glory to his country. "I came here to hear the national anthem," he said after his defeat.

Sushil said the Olympics medals in wrestling here are a blessing for the country, and also a golden opportunity for the sport to grow.

"I believe that something good is going to happen to the sport in India," Sushil said. "I won a bronze in Beijing, and I came here to change the colour of my medal... I tried my best, I got a silver medal. Yogesh won a bronze, and this will be good for the coming Olympics."

Sushil said his medal was dedicated to his guru, Mahabali Satpal, who is also his father-in-law. There are others too, he said. "You don't know who trains with me, you've not seen them," he said. "I want to thank them, bless them because they wished the best for me and I was able to win a medal here."

They're the ones who made him work hard, prepared him for his third Olympic Games. "I had great preparations before the Olympics," he said. "I had good opponents to practise with. This silver medal has been possible because of them. At the next Olympics, it's going to be even better."

He said his Japanese opponent in the final was able to get the better of him. "In the final, my opponent knew my technique. I tried to be the champion… Everyone said I could win but I got the silver. I had a stomach infection but difficulty and pain are part of the sport," he added. He did the best he could and the fans and media, who make them national warriors, must celebrate this golden silver.

The gentle, kindly Yogeshwar Dutt, his right brow still a monstrous gash, comes out to watch and egg on Sushil Kumar as the Beijing bronze winner chased a gold here.

Dutt, winner of a bronze in the 60kg freestyle contest yesterday, has an aching body, but his spirit is soaring. "Yes, there are some aches, but I'm very happy that I won a medal for the country," Dutt tells this correspondent as we settle down to watch Sushil's progress.

Dutt, his eyes locked on Mat A, on which Sushil is fighting, goes into what seems to be a trance - he's oblivious to what's going outside the confines of the first mat at our left. But he's extremely animated as he shouts encouragements and advice to Sushil.

He's only repaying what he got himself from Sushil. Sushil was the motivation that brought Dutt back into the ring after Dutt had to undergo serious surgery on both knees in 2009. "He would call me on the phone regularly, he would tell me that I was too good a wrestler to give up," Dutt says.

Dutt didn't give up and yesterday, at age 29, in what he acknowledges is his last opportunity at the Olympic Games, Dutt got a bronze.

Dutt is delighted with the move that won him the bronze medal bout yesterday - the most wonderful pheetla, pheetle in plural. Dutt had come through a gruelling, brutal series of fights to reach the bronze medal match in the repechage format. His fight for the battle was with a very strong, swift North Korean, Jong Myong Ri. Jong had taken the first period after dragging Dutt out, and the second was drawn 1-1. With the medal slowly disappearing from his sight, Dutt fought as if for his life. At the 45s mark, he got the Korean on his tummy, then got a vice-like grip on his legs. Then, going round and round, he twisted and turned the helpless Jong on the mat - again and again, five times. It was amazing. Fans stamped on the metal stands, the roof nearly came down - the period was stopped at 1.02 minutes, Dutt had got the bronze.

"I got him low in his legs, and I knew that this was a great opportunity to get six points," Dutt says. "I didn't want to miss this opportunity. I love using this trick, I'd used it against a Canadian opponent earlier."

With his coach Vinod Kumar shouting encouragement at mat-side, Dutt didn't let go until he'd got the win - then, in delight, he went head over heels with two stunning somersaults.

He says he desperately wanted to be a winner. "If you lose, no one would remember you," he says. "Jo jeeta wohi sikandar... No one would have talked to me if I had failed. This was my last chance to win a medal."

He'd got a chance four years ago in Beijing too, but he lost in the quarterfinals, after up to the leading stages of the bout. "Had I won a medal there, I'd probably have retired soon," he says. "Especially as I had a very bad injury soon after that. But I now think that after winning a bronze here, I can go on for some time."

"I wanted to win the gold medal, but after losing to the Russian (who went on to win silver) in the morning, I was very upset," Dutt goes on. "I was lucky to get into the repechage stage, and I knew the whole country wanted me to win a medal. It's just not possible to describe this feeling."

Dutt says that he's lived, he's grown up dreaming of a medal at the Olympic Games. "Now I have achieved that dream!" he says. "This medal, I dedicate to my countrymen, my coaches who have worked very hard with me."

"It was my father's dream to see me win an Olympic medal," the memory of his father makes Dutt emotional. "He must be looking down from the heavens on me today."

The whole of the country is doing that, looking at the Olympics medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, the gentle pocket Hercules who lived his dream in London.

26-year-old Vijay Kumar took the silver in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event with 30 out of 40 shots. He started with a perfect five, shooting his targets in four seconds in a final in which the reigning world champion Alexei Klimov went medal-less.

29-year-old Mary Kom went down to Britain’s Nicol Adams 6-11 in a women’s boxing semi-final bout to settle for a bronze in the women’s fly weight category. Mary, a five-time world champion, fought gallantly but was clearly outpunched, much to the dismay of a sizeable Indian crowd.

Gagan Narang opened India’s medal account at the 2012 London Olympics, bagging a bronze in the men’s 10m Air Rifle. He shot 103.1 in a gripping ten-shot finals for an aggregate of 701.1 after scoring 598 in the qualifying round in which also he stood third.

Yogeshwar Dutt won bronze, bouncing back in repechage. He pulled off three successive wins in men’s freestyle 60 kg wrestling competition on Day 15. "I have devoted 21 years of my life to this sport and this is the biggest day of my life," he said as he went to receive his medal.

Saina Nehwal won the bronze in women’s singles badminton, defeating Xin Wang of China 18-21, 01, the latter having retired hurt. The lone Indian shuttler to challenge Chinese domination is hoping her bronze medal will inspire at least half a dozen more to join her at the top.

Andy Murray has had many a trysts with destiny. But somehow, a glorious ending always eluded him at the big stage. But Murray got back, and in style. He beat Roger Federer at the wimbledon courts to win the singles gold medal. In an exclusive interview, Murray talks about winning gold, the Bejing heartbreak and much more.

How much did the disappointment of Beijing inspire you to do well in London 2012?

It was a massive incentive. I didn't realise how big the Olympics are when I went to Beijing, but it taught me a lot. It showed me how important the rest of the players saw the Games and no more so when I saw Novak Djokovic crying tears of joy at winning a bronze medal. I was very keen to make amends and win some sort of medal for Great Britain.

The US Open starts soon. Do you think beating Federer in the Olympics will help you win your first Grand Slam singles event?

I hope this will give me the confidence to go there and believe in myself a bit more than I have in the past. Hopefully I can have a good run and give myself a shot at winning. I have lost some tough matches [in the past]. I've had a lot of questions asked about me many times. I'm just glad I managed to put on a performance I've been waiting for.

It was a huge match for me. It was a big match for Roger as well. I'm sure he would have wanted to win the gold - it's one of the few things he hasn't done in his singles career.

To win in the way I did, makes those losses a little bit easier to take. It will help with the way I go into the Grand Slam matches and I hope it will make me a better player.

What was it like returning to play at Wimbledon so soon after the disappointment of losing your first final there?

I went back on Centre Court on Tuesday after the final and just sat for a little. It was a tough few days after Wimbledon and the Olympics coming so soon was the perfect motivation to train hard on the court and in the gym and to prepare for this event. But it was tough and there were definitely a few tears after Wimbledon.

What did you do in-between the two tournaments?

I was thinking of going away, but decided to stay at home in the end. I live just fourth of Wimbledon so technically in Surrey and not London.

After the match I cried a lot; then I started doing other things to try and take your mind off it. I went go-karting with my friends; I went to a comedy show; to Battersea Dogs Home. I watch and go to quite a lot of comedy shows, laughing's usually the best way to get over most things. I did different things and then I started training again and when you start training again that's when you stop thinking about the past and concentrate less on the past and more into the future.

What were the differences between playing normal Wimbledon tennis and the Olympics at Wimbledon?

Well, to start with we only played best of three sets until the final, which meant I could play in the Mixed Doubles too. I am just disappointed we didn't win a gold medal there, but I suppose I would have settled for gold and silver before the Games started. The other difference is the level of expectation; there are so many different people competing for medals for the team at the Olympics. When it is Wimbledon it feels like it is just you and all of the expectation is on you. There was still pressure, but the build-up was a bit more low key.

How do you hope your performance and that of your fellow Great Britain competitors will impact on the future of sport in your country?

If we can get more kids playing sport the more chance there is of getting great champions and Olympic medallists. For a country of our size we've done amazingly well so far this Olympics. If we could just get 5%, 10% more people playing any sports, we might be able to compete one day with the big, big countries, like the USA and China especially. We're not that far off. If we can make tennis a bit more accessible to kids, the more kids we will have playing and the more chance we've got of having great depth and of this becoming an even better sport.

Away from the tennis, what did you enjoy about competing at the Olympics?

Staying in the Olympic Village for a couple of nights was always a big aim for me. I stayed at home during the actual tennis because I live so near to Wimbledon and the journey from the Olympic Village is well over an hour. The only benefit to losing early in Beijing was the chance to watch some other sports, like boxing and badminton, and meet and eat with the people such as Michael Phelps, Lebron James and Usain Bolt. I love most sports and watch as much as I can during the Olympics. — PMG

London, August 12
Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich won Uganda's first medal of the London Olympics on Sunday after he shot to the front with six kms remaining to defeat the experienced Kenyan pair of Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang.

John Akii-Bua, who set a world record in the 1972 Munich Olympics 400 metres hurdles final, is Uganda's only other Olympic champion. A huge crowd packed the streets of central London during a sun-baked morning on the final day of the Games to watch Kiprotich join twice world gold medallist Kirui and London marathon champion Wilson Kipsang at the 30-km mark.

London, August 12
Uzbekistan's Artur Taymazov won a third consecutive super-heavyweight wrestling gold at the London Games on Saturday to become the most successful freestyle competitor in Olympic history.

With three golds and one silver, Taymazov jumped ahead of Russia's three-time Olympic gold winner Alexander Medved in the rollcall of freestyle wrestlers. One of the sport's most experienced figures, Taymazov won golds in Beijing in 2008 and Athens in 2004, taking the silver in Sydney in 2000. Despite his pedigree, Taymazov was not among the favourite going into the London Games after he finished eighth in last year's world championships. But the 33-year-old never looked like losing to Davit Modzmanashvili of Georgia in the 120kg (265lb) final, the sport's heaviest division. "I came on the mat with a decision: I win here or I die here," he said. "To be honest, it hasn't sunk in yet." The father-of-two punched the air and waved to the handful of Uzbek supporters in the crowd before lifting up one of his coaches and running him around the wrestling mat. — Agencies

London, August 12
When a teenage Michael Phelps started splashing the girls at the end of a particularly tough training session, his coach Bob Bowman tried to discipline him. "I said, 'you should be very tired, that's the hardest practice you've ever done,'" the coach recalled.

London, August 12
Hungary's Sarolta Kovacs broke the Olympic record for the swimming leg of the women's modern pentathlon on Sunday while her compatriot Adrienn Toth took an overall lead in the race for the last gold medal of the London Games. A sport invented by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, the event involves fencing, swimming, horse-riding, shooting and running. At the 2012 Olympics, it takes place in a single day at three separate venues.

In the swimming leg, a 200 metres freestyle race, the two fastest swimmers both broke the previous Olympic record of 2:08.86. Kovacs set a new record of 2:08.11 while Britain's Samantha Murray clocked 2:08.20. — Agencies

London, August 12
Two teenage sharks and a flying squirrel made their mark at London 2012 as outstanding new talents with their best years still ahead of them. China's Ye Shiwen stunned the swimming world by covering the penultimate, freestyle lap of the 400 metres individual medley faster than Michael Phelps in the men's final, and her last lap quicker than Ryan Lochte in winning the male equivalent.

"I was trying my best to come from behind," said the 16-year-old, who won two gold medals and was forced to fend off doping insinuations that were unsupported by any evidence. A year younger than Ye, Lithuania's unassuming Ruta Meilutyte seemed amazed by her victory in the 100m breaststroke. "It came as a complete surprise when I touched. I was not looking round. I was not looking at which position I was in, whether I was last or I was first," she said.

Watched by billions, the Olympics provide the ultimate stage for any athlete and each successive Games etches new names on the world's sporting consciousness.Some dominate a single Olympics, like U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz at Munich in 1972, while others — like Phelps, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina or "Flying Finn" Paavo Nurmi - blaze a trail of victories over two or more Games.Some, like boxing gold medallist Cassius Clay in 1960, use the Olympics as a platform for glory in a different arena. As Muhammad Ali, he became world heavyweight champion and one of the greatest sportsmen of the 20th century. — Reuters

A Brazil fan breaks into a samba dance at Beija Flor samba school while watching the Brazil vs Mexico Olympic football final on Saturday. — Reuters

But dig deeper into the science behind home advantage and the research shows it is not as simple as just having tens of thousands of eager supporters screaming their heads off for their national Olympians to win.If Brazil wants to reap the same performance boost from an enthusiastic home crowd in Rio 2016, its coaches and athletes and people must first prepare their minds for success." People's notions of efficacy are extremely important in performance," said Stephen Reicher, a professor of psychology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "So partly it comes down to your own beliefs.""If you believe 'I can't make it' and everyone out there is expecting you to make it, then that has a negative effect. But if you believe 'I have a chance', then a supportive crowd can be very positive."

‘It carries you’

In an analysis of home advantage published in the Journal of Sport Science last year, sports scientists found host nation advantage does show up in the final medal tables.Home teams win around three times more medals at their nation's Games than when they are away, the researchers found. The analysis also found the greatest influence comes not from knowing the surroundings, eating familiar food, speaking the same language or not having to travel, but from the roar of the crowd. British athletes right across the spectrum, from teenage newcomer and taekwondo fighter Jade Jones to the multi-gold medal winning cyclist Chris Hoy, have credited the thunderous crowds with at least some of their success in London. Cyclist Victoria Pendleton, who won gold and silver medals in a velodrome rocking with roars of support, described how it had a "massive effect" on her performance."You're so lifted by the noise. It carries you. It does inspire you," she said.

All in the mind?

So is it all in the mind? Well yes, and no."It's complicated," says Nick Maguire, a lecturer in clinical psychology at Britain's University of Southampton. “It's psycho-physiological, rather than purely psychological or physiological.”— Agencies

London, August 12
If London 2012 proved one thing it is that the debate about whether soccer should be part of the Olympic Games is over for good. Record crowds of more than two million people around Britain voted overwhelmingly in favour and, with the next Olympic Games in soccer-obsessed Brazil in 2016, the thorny old question is simply no longer on the agenda.

An outstanding men's competition, played in a great Olympian spirit, ended with a 2-1 upset win for Mexico over Brazil in Saturday's final at Wembley, while a hugely supported women's tournament resulted in a third successive gold for the United States, who beat Japan by the same score in their final.

The two tournaments captivated fans in six venues across the country, smashing attendance records set in Beijing four years ago.

Purists argue that as the Olympics is all about sport at the highest level, then soccer, and particularly the men's event, has no place as it is essentially an under-23 competition with three overage players allowed.

The point they miss, however, is that the Olympics are not simply about having the best competing, but about striving to be the fastest, highest or strongest, which is what young players from unlikely soccer outposts such as Gabon, Honduras and North Korea are doing.

Soccer also brings millions into the coffers of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the local organising committee (LOCOG). A total of 2.18 million people attended the 58 games across the two tournaments, compared to the previous record of 2.13 million in 2008 - with the men's final crowd of 86,162, the biggest. — Reuters

London, August 12
Colombian 400 metres runner Diego Palomeque Echevarria was excluded from the London Olympics on Sunday after a second sample tested positive for testosterone, the International Olympic Committee said.

Palomeque had been provisionally suspended on Aug. 4 pending results of the second test. He now faces a maximum two-year ban as a first-time offender.

“Eighteen-year-old Palomeque Echevarria, who was scheduled to compete on 4 August, provided a urine sample on 26 July in London that tested positive for testosterone of exogenous origin," the IOC said. “The analysis of the B sample confirmed the results of the A sample."

Palomeque is the 12th athlete to be sent home by the IOC or the team itself for failing a drugs test since the start of the Olympic period on July 16. — Reuters

Townsville, August 12
Shoddy batting by top-order saw Unmukt Chand-led India U-19 side lose their opening World Cup match against the West Indies by four wickets here today. On a slow track at the Tony Ireland stadium, the Indian colts could never get going as they were restricted to a paltry 166 for eight in their stipulated 50 overs.

Despite early hiccups, the West Indies team slowly but surely reached the target with 17 balls to spare. John Campbell (36, 70 balls, 1x4, 1x6) and Anthony Alleyne (52, 91 balls, 2x4, 1x6) added 58 runs for the third wicket to put West Indies on track while Alleyne and Kyle Mayers (43, 54 balls, 4x4,1x6) added another 58 for the fifth wicket to consolidate further.

It was India's poor performance with the bat that led to this heart-breaking defeat. A lot depended on skipper Chand (22, 61 balls, 3x4) but he failed to get going as the track was not conducive for a free-flowing stroke player like him. Left-arm medium pacer Jerome Jones (2/23), Ronsford Beaton (3/33) and Kyle Mayers(2/35) shared the bulk of the spoils between them. Losing three quick wickets in the first fifteen overs also pegged India back.

Prashant Chopra (1), Baba Aparajith (5) and the talented Hanuman Vihari (8) were dismissed cheaply as India were struggling at 34 for three. Chand followed suit as he edged one to keeper Sunil Ambris off Mayers's bowling as India were left tottering at 50 for four.

Zol (26, 52 balls,1x4) and wicket-keeper batsman Smit Patel (51, 99 balls 5x4) then added 41 runs for the fifth wicket while Patel and Akshdeep Nath (19, 32 balls) added a further 44 runs for the sixth wicket as India managed to cross the 150-run mark. — PTI