Turkey wins wrestling gold at 66 kg in Beijing Olympics

You are welcome to enjoy this Olympic Gold medal for Turkey

From Yahoo sports news-

Being a reigning world wrestling champion has meant little so far in the Beijing Olympics, where the favorites have repeatedly gone down well before the gold-medal match.

Ramazan Sahin of Turkey proved an exception Wednesday, starting on top of the freestyle 66-kilogram bracket and finishing that way by scoring a tight victory over Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine for the gold medal.

Sahin, also the European champion, won 2-2, 2-1, 2-2—losing the first period on a tiebreaker because Stadnik scored the final points of the period, but winning the third when he scored last.

In the third, Stadnik, leading 2-0, controlled Sahin in a gut wrench along the edge of the mat. Sahin worked his way out from the bottom position to maneuver Stadnik onto his side and quickly tilt his shoulders toward the mat for a two-point exposure.

Or he did exactly what a world champion would, coming back as the precious seconds ticked down and the gold began to slip away.

“The last moment, when we were tied 2-2, I told myself I should hold until the last minute, and I won,” Sahin said. “I’ve lost to him before, but I felt quite relaxed and confident that I could win.”

Stadnik said: “I tried to find the reserve to win but, in the end, I did not manage to.”

Stadnik was the second wrestler in his family to get a medal in Beijing— his wife, Mariya Stadnik won a bronze at 48 kilograms for Azerbaijan. She stood atop an exit row during her husband’s match, screaming in such a shrill and pleading voice that it could frequently be heard over the spectators.

“My wife has won bronze here, while I have won silver,” he said. “It’s nice to realize that you compete against your own wife.”

Of course, he didn’t say who would win if the two went head-to-head.

Sahin started the day with perhaps his most important victory, defeating Geandry Garzon of Cuba 1-0, 7-4 in a rematch of their 2007 world championship final. After that, Sahin, 25, took out two-time world junior champion Mehdi Taghavi of Iran and Georgia’s Otar Tushishvili.

The bronzes went to Tushishvili and Sushil Kumar, who won only the second Beijing medal for India.

Stadnik was a surprise finalist although he was third in the world in 2006. He benefited from the second-round ouster of Irbek Farniev, the only Russian to not win a world championship in freestyle’s seven weight classes last year.

“Reaching the final is already a high result, but I have been ready to win,” Stadnik said.

Stadnik’s first match was a 2-0, 4-0 decision over Doug Schwab, a former NCAA champion at Iowa. Schwab also lost in the bronze-medal bracket to Kumar 4-1, 0-1, 3-2.

“I just didn’t perform like I’m capable of,” Schwab said. “It wasn’t from the lack of preparation or anything like that, I just didn’t perform.”

Schwab, from Iowa City, Iowa, felt inspired by Henry Cejudo’s gold-medal performance at 55 kilograms Tuesday. That’s what made his own poor performance all the more baffling.

“He kept attacking,” Schwab said. “That’s why he won. It was a great lesson for me, but I didn’t use it.”