Wrestler Sushil Kumar wins bronze

Wrestler Sushil Kumar claimed India's second medal at the Beijing Olympics when he won the bronze in the 66kg Freestyle event on Wednesday.

Kumar beat Kazakhstan's Leonid Spiridonov 3:1, with scores of 2-1, 0-1, 1-0 in the three rounds.

Spiridonov had finished fourth in the 66kg weight class in Athens, while Kumar took 14th place.

This is the first time since 1952 Helsinki Olympics that India has won two medals in a single Olympics.

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was the last Indian wrestler to win a medal, when he won bronze in 1952.

Earlier, Abhinav Bindra gave India its first individual Olympics gold medal when he won the 10 metre Air Rifle event.

Sushil Kumar, who had a bye in the first round, lost to Ukraine's Andry Stadnik 1-8 in the pre-quarter-finals on technical points.

But, despite the defeat and because of the bye, he got to fight the United States' Dough Schwab in a repechage bout, which he won 3-1 and earned the right to meet Albert Batyrov of Belarus next.

The Indian won this round too 3-1 to make it to the bronze medal round, where he beat Spiridonov.

Ramazan Shahin of Turkey took the gold, defeating Stadnik, Sushil Kumar's conqueror in the pre-quarter-finals.

In the gold medal bout, Stadnik took the first period 2-2 by scoring the last point. Shahin then clawed back to take the next  2-1. The deciding period was 2-2 after the first two minutes, but Shahin scored the last point and thus won the bout.

This is the first gold medal won by Turkey at the Beijing Games' wrestling tournament.

Men's 66kg freestyle first and second repechage round results:

Second repechage round: Sushil Kumar (India) beat Albert Batyrov (Belarus) 3-1
Geandry Garzon (Cuba) beat Mehdi Taghavi (Iran) 3-1

First repechage round Sushil Kumar (India) beat Doug Schwab (US) 3-1