Beijing, Aug 20: India's surprice medal winner Sushil Kumar hoped Wednesday that his effort will improve the profile of wrestling in the country.

'I hope my bronze changes the profile of the sport in the country as there is no dearth of talent," the wrestler told reporters after grabbing the medal in the men"s freestyle (66kg) category here. The 25-year-old Delhi wrestler qualified for the Beijing Games after finishing seventh in the World Championships last year. 'I gained lot of confidence after my performance at the World Championships. From then on I have worked hard for the last one year and I am happy that my effort paid off today," said Sushil.

Till date wrestling, one of the ancient Indian sports, has always been seen as an obscure sport but it is also the game that has given Indian two Olympic medals. In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav gave India its first ever individual Olympic medal when he won the bronze in the Freestyle Bantamweight class.

Sushil did the same 56 years later when won an unexpected bronze from the same discipline, defeating Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan in the freestyle (66 kg) event at the Beijing Games.

OneIndia News