Olympics wrestling results: August 14th
By David Rouben
Results from Olympics Greco-Roman wrestling in the men’s 59 kg and 75 kg competitions from Sunday, August 14.
Olympics wrestling got underway with the Greco-Roman competition in the 59 kg and 75 kg weight classes. Even though wrestling fans had to wait nine days for their sport, today marked the first of eight consecutive days where Olympic medals will be handed out.
In the 59 kg competition, Jesse Thielke’s chance to win Gold was over in the quarterfinals when he lost to Azerbaijan’s Roshan Bayramov. However, the semifinal between Shinobu Ota and Bayramov was an absolute classic. Ota threw caution to the wind by going for a throw, but ended up on the ground. But once there, Ota pulled off a reversal, and won by pin in an incredible sequence to advance to the Gold Medal match.
As the 12th ranked wrestler in his weight class, Ota was an underdog throughout the tournament. And in the Final, he came up against Cuba’s Ismael Borrero Molina, the number one wrestler in the world at 59 kg. Borrero controlled the match from start to finish, winning 8-0, and ruined Ota’s Cinderella story. In the bronze medal matches, Uzbekistan’s Elmurat Tasmuradov and Norway’s Stig-Andre Berge took home the consolation prizes.
MEDAL RESULT | Men's Greco-Roman 59kg
The 75 kg tournament saw a big upset early on, as 13th ranked Bozo Starcevic from Croatia beat three-time world champion Selcuk Cebi from Turkey in the Round of 16. But when he got matched up with American Andy Bisek in the quarterfinals, he proved that his win wasn’t a fluke. After getting an early takedown in the second round, Starcevic played defense the rest of the way to cruise to a 2-0 victory.
In the semifinal, Bozo had his opponent Roman Vlasov pinned. But the ref stopped the match before it could be called, and Vlasov advanced in controversial style – though did you really expect anything different from a Russian? The Olympic Gold medal match was between Vlasov and Mark Madsen of Denmark in a rematch of last year’s World Wrestling Championships.
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Vlasov got the better of Madsen then, so Madsen was motivated to get it back. But Vlasov got a four-point lead from a par terre, leaving Madsen with a mountain to climb. Vlasov repeatedly stuffed Madsen’s takedowns from then on to win the Gold medal match 5-1, although many will argue that it was undeserved.
In the bronze medal matches, Kim Hyeon-woo won a super tight contest over Bozo, while Saeid Mourad Abdvali won his match after getting a three-point advantage early on.
MEDAL RESULT | Men's Greco-Roman 75kg
A tremendous amount of excitement in Olympics wrestling, and that was just the first day! If that was any indication of what we’re going to get, the fans are the real winners here.