Beijing: Revazi Mindorashvili won Georgia's second wrestling gold medal at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday, after he vanquished the Russian world champion on his way to the final.
The 32-year-old shaven-headed former world champion won the men's 84kg freestyle title with a points victory over Yusup Abdusalomov of Tajikistan in the final.
But he had done the hard work against his country's real-life foes in the semi-final, when he pinned world champion Georgy Ketoev of Russia onto the mat to win by a fall.
In the final match, Mindorashvili recovered well after narrowly losing the first period to dominate the 30-year-old Russia-born Tajik, who appeared to tire.
The Georgian took the second period with three takedowns, while adding two pushouts and a takedown in the third.
Mindorashvili scored most of his throws as a result of failed two-handed Tajik lunges at the Georgian's legs.
Taras Janko of Ukraine scored two pushouts and a takedown without reply to edge Serhat Balci of Turkey for a bronze medal, while Ketoev just edged out Davyd Bichinashvili of Germany for the other bronze by virtue of scoring the last two points of the match.
It was war-torn Georgia's second success at the mat in these Olympics, after Greco-Roman wrestler Manuchar Kvirkelia had taken the 74kg gold medal earlier this week.
Mindorashvili's victory was the lone hiccup so far on Thursday in powerhouse Russia's drive to increase their wrestling gold medal tally here, which stands at five.
Shirvani Muradov of Russia won the men's 96kg freestyle wrestling gold medal at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday, beating Taimuraz Tigiev of Kazakhstan in the final.
The second period ended scoreless after the Russian scored a single takedown in the first, but the Kazakh failed to extend the match into a third period after failing to score within the required 30 seconds, giving the title to Muradov.
It was the Russians' sixth wrestling gold medal at these Games.
Khetag Gazyumov of Azerbaijan and George Gogshelidze of Georgia both won bronze medals.
Young Russian heavyweight Bakhtiyar Akhmedov, a former junior world champion, is to face Uzbekistan's Artur Taymazov, the defending champion in the 120kg final later Thursday.
Former European champion Shirvani Muradov hopes to make it two for Russia when he faces Kazakhstan's Taimuraz Tigiyev in the 96kg final, also later Thursday.
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