Vlasov almost dropped his first match to South Korea’s Hyeonwoo Kim, who won gold at 66 kilograms during the London Olympics.
Advertisement
“He has the potential [to become a three-time Olympic champion]”, Mamiashvili said, as cited by TASS.
Russian wrestler Roman Vlasov defeated Mark Overgaard Madsen from Denmark in the men’s Greco-Roman 75 kg class 3-1, defending his Olympic title and bringing Russia its ninth gold in Rio.
The 24-year-old Cuban was dominant in 59kg Greco-Roman wrestling’s Gold Medal Match, defeating Japan’s Shinobu Ota by technical superiority, 8-0.
There, Basci faced Saeid Morad Abdvali of Iran, while Starcevic took on Hyeonwoo Kim of South Korea. Kim drew Vlasov in the opening round of competition, setting up a rare meeting between two reigning Olympic champions. There’s a lot of emotion. “It went really fast but I was able to be a stronger athlete and come out on top”.
Uzbekistan’s Elmurat Tasmuradov beat Kyrgyzstan’s Arsen Eraliev in the first bronze medal match, securing a second Olympic medal in Greco-Roman for his country after Alexander Dokturishvili won under 74kg gold at Athens 2004.
Ota had a strong day en route to the final, first knocking off 2012 gold medalist Hamid Soryan of Iran in the qualifying round and later pinning Azerbaijan’s Rovshan Bayramov, the world No. 2, in the semifinals.
At last year’s world championships in Las Vegas, Soryan was flagged for excessive brutality and ruled ineligible for a medal.
But Ota, dubbed by some in his home nation the “Ninja Wrestler”, wasn’t finished. It was Borrero Molina and Shinobu who came out on top in those matches, sending Tasmuradov and Bayramov to the bronze medal matches.
Advertisement
US wrestler Andy Bisek, who had strong medal aspirations after winning back-to-back bronze medals at the world championships, was eliminated by Starcevic in the quarterfinals. So was teammate Jesse Thielke, who was beaten 9-0 by Bayramov. “I hope my victory will boost the confidence of all Russian wrestlers”, he said, as cited by R-Sport. “That’s what we’re doing it for”.
