04 June 2023 -
TEHRAN - Iranian wrestler Ghasem Rezaei won bronze in the Men's Greco-Roman 98 kg category at the Rio games, fighting back to compensate his deficit on the scoreboard in last moments to take his second consecutive medal in the Olympics history.
Rezaei, during last round of the repechage for the bronze medal, overcame a four-point deficit to defeat Sweden’s Carl Fredrik Stefan Schoen and claim a bronze medal at 98kg.
Sweden’s Schoen went up 4-0 after a takedown and gut wrench in the first period. The Iranian battled back in the second period, scoring with back-to-back gut wrenches to make the score 4-4 and ultimately give him the victory on criteria.
It marks the second straight Olympic medal for Rezaei, who won gold in the London Olympics.
Earlier, In his quest for the bronze medal, the Iranian overcame Xiao Di from China and Sweden’s Fredrik Schon respectively to grab Iran’s 2nd bronze at the games.
In the round of 16, Rezaie registered an 8-0 victory over Venezuelan Pérez. He then faced a rival from Cuba in the quarter finals of the tournament.But, the 2012 Olympics gold medalist was not in his usual form in that match and eventually lost 4-0 to Yasmany Daniel Lugo Cabrera.
Two-time world champion Artur Aleksanyan from Armenia, who currently ranked No.1 in the world, topped Cuba’s Yasmany Daniel Lugo Cabrera to win the gold medal at 98kg.
In other match for the bronze medal in the category, two-time world medalist Turkish Cenk Ildem, ranked no.6 in the world, registered a 4-0 shutout victory over Romanian wrestler, Alin Alexuc Ciurariu.Your Comment
