Uzbekistan’s Artur Taymazov won his third successive Olympic gold in the men’s 120m kilogram freestyle wrestling class Saturday, beating Georgia’s Davit Modzamanashvili in a close final.
The bout was scored 3-0 in Taymazov’s favor after he scraped 1-0 wins in each of the first two periods with minimum-ranking throws.
Taymazov underlined his status as Uzbekistan’s most successful Olympic competitor, unbeaten since the final of Sydney 2000, where he won silver.
Modzamashvili won the most important medal of his career, his main previous achievement being bronze at last year’s world championships.
Bronze medals went to Iran’s Komeil Ghasemi and Russia’s Bilyal Makhov after two thrilling three-period contests.
On Friday, U.S. wrestler Jordan Burroughs had taken 74kg gold against Iran’s Saeed Gourdarzi, but the second U.S.-Iran medal matchup went the other way, Ghasemi beating Tervel Dlagnev 3-1 on points.
Ghasemi took the first round 4-0, but was beaten 1-0 in the second before scraping the third 1-0 in a grueling match.
In the second bronze medal bout, Makhnov won a tough fight with Kazakhstan’s Daulet Shabanbay, winning the first round 5-0 before losing the second 3-0 and coming back to win the third 3-0 for the win.
