Welterweight, Freestyle (≤65 kg), Men

If there was a wide open weight class in men’s freestyle in Rio for favourites, it’s was this one, as there had been a different World champion all three years of the Olympic cycle to date, with a gifted group right behind them. With no strong favorite, everybody in the field had a chance to get on the podium.

Two medalists from the 2012 Olympic Games were competing – the gold medalist from Azerbaijan Toğrul Əsgərov, and the bronze medalist Yogeshwar Dutt of India, who was competing in his fourth Olympic Games. Other contenders were world-ranked number one Frank Chamizo of Italy, the 2015 World champion who had lost Asgarov in the European final; the 2014 World champion and 2015 bronze medalist Soslan Ramonov from Russia, and two-time World bronze medalist (2013, 2014) Ganzorigiin Mandakhnaran of Mongolia.

In the end, it was Ramonov beating the defending Olympic champion Asgarov (60 kg) in just two minutes five seconds in the gold medal bout. He scored 11 unanswered points, winning 11-0 on technical points in a bout that was much harder than the score line indicated.

The much-decorated Asgarov (2010 World silver medalist, 2012 European champion, 2015 European Games gold medalist), who captured his second Olympic medal in as many Games, felt great fatigue after a tough semi-final against Italian Chamizo, who went on to earn the bronze medal beating American Frank Molinaro.

The other bronze medal match had the Mongolian Mandakhnaran leading his opponent Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan, 7-6 and he started celebrating with only seconds left. The judges, however, awarded a penalty point because Mandakhnaran was not engaging with an opponent during the match and with the score tied at 7-7, Navruzov was awarded the victory by virtue of earning the last point. What proceeded was an epic meltdown from Mandakhnaran’s coaches, who stripped down to their underwear, which only prompted the referees to award Navruzov another penalty point for the Mongolian outburst following the match. Mandakhnaran refused to accept the decision and walked away from the referee who was about hold the hand up of Navruzov to make the match official.