LONDON, Aug 12: India´s Sushil Kumar advanced into the Olympic men´s 66kg freestyle wrestling final after coming from behind in his last four clash in spectacular style on Sunday.
Victory means the 29-year-old, world champion in 2010, is guaranteed to improve on the bronze medal he won at the Beijing Games four years ago.
Having won the first period against Akzhurek Tanatarov of Kazakhstan, Kumar saw his semi-final opponent level and then go 3-0 ahead in the third and final period.
But Kumar countered with a hold down initially worth two points, which he converted into a three-point score to tie the match. And with 34 seconds left he´d edged 5-3 in front.
Then, with just seconds of the contest remaining, Kumar sealed victory with a huge throw that saw him dump Tanatarov onto the mat.
Now he will face Japan´s Tatsuhiro Yonemistu in the final later Sunday.
Kumar had a tough start to his London 2012 campaign, beating 2008 gold medallist Ramazan Sahin of Turkey 3-1.
There are no seedings in Olympic wrestling and the luck of the draw saw Kumar paired against fellow former world champion Sahin in the last 16.
In his quarter-final bout, Kumar overcame Uzbekistan´s Ikhtiyor Navruzov, also by a 3-1 margin, after surviving a spirited rally by his opponent with some quick counters and strong lifts.
Kumar, who carried India´s flag at the opening ceremony, is now assured of giving his country their second freestyle wrestling medal of this Games after Yogeshwar Dutt won 60kg bronze on Saturday.
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