Georgia wrestler Vladimer Khinchegashvili has won the 57-kilogram gold medal in the men’s freestyle tournament.
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Khinchegashvili, 25, won on countback after the final ended 3-3.
Khinchegashvili won gold in men’s 57kg in the World Championship in Las Vegas in 2015. “Also, the referee actually was not as good as he is supposed to be”, he said.
Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev and Iran’s Hassan Rahimi won their respective bronze-medal bouts.
“My dream just came true”.
His final was marred, however, as Russian opponent Aniuar Geduev was forced to take repeated medical breaks while doctors tried to control the bleeding from a cut over his eye.
“So I had a plan”.
The London 2012 silver medallist’s victory gave Georgia a second gold of the Games, after Lasha Talakhadze’s win in the men’s +105kg weightlifting. A late unsuccessful challenge gave the Georgian a 4-3 win.
Turkey’s European champion Soner Demirtas blanked Galymzhan Usserbayev from Kazakhstan 6-0 in the bronze-medal match to earn his first world-level medal while Azerbaijan’s Jabrayil Hasanov rebounded from his semifinal loss, beating Bekzod Abdurakhmanov of Uzbekistan 9-7 for the other bronze.
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Rio 2016 wrestling action is due to continue tomorrow with the men’s 86kg and 125kg freestyle competitions.
