About an hour after Armenia watched a wrestler fall short of gold in the 66 kg Greco-Roman division, they saw another rise up to earn the nation’s first gold medal of these Olympics.
Artur Aleksanyan took gold in the 98 kg (216 lbs) Greco-Roman competition, defeating Yasmany Lugo of Cuba 3-0 in the gold medal match. Aleksanyan’s gold gives him two Olympic medals in his career, as he took bronze in London four years ago. A two-time world champion, Aleksanyan entered the Olympics as the top-ranked wrestler in his weight class.
Two of Armenia’s three medals in Rio have come in Greco-Roman wrestling, with Migran Arutyunyan taking silver in the aforementioned 66 kg weight class. As for Lugo, he took gold in the 98 kg weight class at last summer’s Pan-American Games in Toronto and has won gold at that particular competition five times.
Taking bronze were Turkey’s Cenk Ildem and Iran’s Ghasem Rezaei, with the latter winning a repechage match before defeating Sweden’s Stefan Schoen in a bronze medal match. Rezaei took gold in the 96 kg weight class in London.
