Wrestler Sushil Kumar will be India’s flag-bearer at London Olympics

The confirmation puts an end to the speculation doing the rounds in the past several weeks about who will be the Olympic flag-bearer. Among the sports personalities shortlisted by the IOA for the honour were tennis ace Leander Paes, boxer Vijender Singh, and champion shooter Abhinav Bindra.

Bindra was reported to be IOA’s preferred candidate. However, the Olympic gold medalist’s rifle event is scheduled for June 30, just three days after the opening ceremony and chose to prepare for the competition. Likewise, boxer Singh’s competition schedule also was very close to the ceremony.

The London 2012 Olympics qualifier, Solanki has won several gold medals. He is the gold medallist for the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in 2005 and 2007 and the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi.

He also became the first Indian to win a gold medal at FILA 2010 World Wrestling Championships, in Moscow in 2010.

Indian athletes displayed one of their best performance at an Olympic event at the London 2012 Games. India brought home a total of six medals -- four bronze and two silver. Flag-bearer Sushil Kumar won a silver medal in the Men's wrestling event.

Indian paralympians also displayed a good performance in the London 2012 Paralympic games with athlete HN Girisha bagging a silver medal in the High Jump competition -- India's first medal in the category.

Catch up on Olympics and Paralympics news with IndiaNewsBulletin's coverage of London 2012 Olympic Games.