WFI felicitates London Olympics medallists

Both Sushil, who won a silver medal at the London Games, and Yogeshwar, who returned with a bronze, were today presented a plaque, a shawl and the cash award at a glittering welcome ceremony organised by the sports' governing body.

The other wrestlers who participated in the Olympics, including Narsingh Pancham Yadav, Amit Kumar Dahiya and Geeta Phogat were presented a cash award of Rs one lakh each, while men's chief coach Vinod Kumar and women's chief coach O P Yadav were given a sum of Rs 25,000 each.

Satpal Singh and coach Yashvir Singh were awarded a sum of Rs 25,000 on the occasion while the two foreign coaches Emzar Makhardze and Vladimir Mestvirishvili also got an equal amount of money for their contribution in India's successful Olympic campaign.

Congratulating the medal winners, the WFI president Brij Bushan Sharan Singh said there was a need to promote the second string of Indian wrestlers, so that the sport can fetch more medals in the future Olympic Games.

"If any sport can win a medal at the Olympics it is wrestling. We need the second and third line of our wrestlers to come up strongly so that we can have a wider pool to choose from, which also increases our medal prospects," he said. More