BEIJING; A day after creating history in the Olympics by winning two medals, India had little to cheer about on Thursday with wrestler Rajiv Tomar crashing out of the 120 kg freestyle event without much of a fight.
The euphoria of the medal-winning efforts of unheralded grappler Sushil Kumar and boxer Vijender Kumar quickly gave way to disappointment as Tomar, the lone Indian in the fray on Thursday, failed to make much of an impression in the wrestling arena.
After Abhinav Bindra's gold-winning feat during the first week of the sporting extravaganza, India had created a record of sorts on Wednesday with the 25-year-old Sushil Kumar clinching a bronze medal in wrestling while Vijender put himself on course for a silver or gold medal by romping into the semi-finals of the boxing event.
This is the first time ever that India have secured three medals in the Olympics. India had won two Olympic medals in the 1952 Helsinki Games when the hockey team had won the gold medal and wrestler K D Jadhav had won a bronze medal, a record which had stood for 56 long years.
Tomar fought a slipshod qualifying round bout against Steve Mocco and the American hardly broke a sweat as he blanked the Indian grappler 4-0 to show him the exit door.
And if there was any hope of a Sushil-like turnaround, it went up in smoke with Mocco failing to reach the final.
