Georgia, Russia and Uzbekistan won the wrestling gold medals on offer yesterday at the Beijing Olympics.
In the 84kg category Georgian Revazi Mindorashvili won, while Russian Shirvani Muradov took the gold in the 96kg division. The final wrestling gold medal of the day went to Artur Taymazov of Uzbekistan, who won the 120kg division.
Mindorashvili had to come from behind to beat the runner up from the world championships, Yussup Abdusalomov from Tajikistan. The Georgian had already eliminated the world champion Georgy Ketoev in the semi-finals.
PHOTO: EPA
Ketoev and Ukrainian Taras Danko won the bronze medal after beating Davyd Bichinashvili and Serhat Balci respectively in their bronze medal fights.
Mindorashvili, who finished just 30th at the world championships last year, said that his opponent was a very strong wrestler.
“We have met each other twice and the first time I won. Right now I beat him and I would say I am better than him,” he said.
Muradov proved too strong for his Kazakhstan opponent in the 96kg division after breaking the clinch in the second period against Taimuraz Tigiyev.
Former world champion George Gogshelidze from Georgia and Khetag Gazyumov from Azerbaijan won bronze. Gogshelidze beat Michel Bastista from Cuba, while Gazyumov saw off Georgii Tibilov in the bronze medal bouts.
Muradov said that he had been getting better as the tournament progressed.
“After each battle I was feeling better and better. The semi-final was very difficult and the final as well. Tigiyev is a very good sportsman and we know each other very well. At the end of the second period I was under a huge amount of pressure,” he said.
He said that he could not believe that he won.
“Presently, I am not feeling that I have won the gold medal. Maybe later, once I am back to my motherland in Dagestan, I will feel that. There are many Olympic champions coming from this region of Russia, so I don’t think they will erect a monument for me,” he said.
The final wrestling medal of the Beijing Olympics went to Taymazov, who beat Russian Bakhtiyar Akhmedov for the 120kg division, while David Musulbes of Slovakia and Marid Mutalimov of Kazakhstan got bronze.
Taymazov, who won the gold medal in Athens and has a silver from Sydney, said that he had prepared for Beijing for a long time.
“Nothing except a gold medal could have satisfied me,” he said.
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