Stefanek wins first Olympic gold for Serbia, Aleksanyan cruises as Greco-Roman closes in Rio

Davor Stefanek (SRB) battles Migran Arutyunyan (ARM) in the  66 kg gold medal match. Photo: John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com.

RIO DE JANEIRO – The Greco-Roman portion of this year’s Olympic Games came to a close on Tuesday evening with two past World champions standing atop the Olympic podium inside Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


History was made in the 66 kg final as World No. 6 Davor Stefanek of Serbia pulled out a 1-1 win over World No. 8 Migran Arutyunyan of Armenia to become the first Olympic gold medalist in the nation’s history. He is only the second Olympic gold medalist for Serbia across all Olympic sports.


Stefanek was a World champion in 2014 and won bronze at the World Championships last year.


The Armenia hammer Artur Aleksanyan hit the three-peat, picking up Olympic gold at 98 kg to go along with his two World titles from 2014 and 2015. In the gold medal match Aleksanyan controlled Yasmany Daniel Lugo Cabrera of Cuba, 3-0.


Aleksanyan won the sixth Olympic medal in Greco-Roman wrestling for Armenia and the nation’s second gold.


The bronze medals at 66 kg belong to World No. 10 Shmagi Bolkvadze of Georgia and World No. 1 Rasul Chunayev of Azerbaijan.


Bolkvadze edged Tomohiro Inoue of Japan, 1-0, to pick up his first senior-level medal in World or Olympic competition, as well as snagging Georgia its seventh all-time Olympic medal. The Georgian was a Junior World champion in 2014.


It was not the result he had hoped for, but 2015 World champion Rasul Chunayev finished strong in Rio with an 8-0 thrashing of 2013 World champion Han-Soo Ryu of Korea in the bronze medal match.


Chunayev earned Azerbaijan its second bronze medal this week, and eighth overall Olympic medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. Sabah Shariati won bronze for Azerbaijan at 130 kg on Monday.


Bringing home bronze medals at 98 kg were World No. 6 Cenk Ildem of Turkey and World No. 3 Ghasem Rezaei of Iran.


Ildem, a two-time World bronze medalist, added Olympic bronze to his ledger with a crisp 4-0 decision over World No. 19 Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu of Romania. Ildem joins 130 kg silver medalist Riza Kayaalp as Greco-Roman medal winners at the Rio Olympics for Turkey, giving the nation 24 Greco-Roman medals in its Olympic history.


Rezaei became a two-time Olympic medalist, adding bronze to his Olympic gold from 2012, with a clutch come from behind victory over Carl Fredrik Schoen of Sweden. Trailing 4-0 in the second period, Rezaei executed two clean gut wrenches to take the lead and the match by criteria, 4-4.


Iran posted a lackluster showing in Greco-Roman compared to its stunning performance in London where the nation picked up three gold medals. Rezaei joined 75 kg bronze winner Saeid Morad Abdvali as Iranian Greco-Roman medalists this time around. Iran now owns seven Olympic medals in Greco-Roman wrestling.


The island nation of Cuba pulled in the best medal haul in Greco-Roman this week with two golds and one silver. Russia picked up two golds and one bronze to join Cuba as the only countries to win three Greco-Roman medals in Rio. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey all earned two medals.


Of the 24 Olympic medals up for grabs in Greco-Roman this week, 16 nations were able to capture at least one, speaking to the talent diversity in the sport.


Olympic wrestling will resume at 9 a.m. (ET) Wednesday morning with the start of women’s freestyle competition. Up first for the women are 48 kg, 58 kg and 69 kg.


Every match from the 2016 Olympic Games can be viewed live courtesy of NBC at NBCOlympics.com. Complete brackets and match-by-match results can be found at unitedworldwrestling.org.

2016 OLYMPIC GAMES

Aug 14-21 at Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Final Results
66 kg/145.5 lbs.

Gold – Davor Stefanek (Serbia)

Silver – Migran Arutyunyan (Armenia)

Bronze – Shmagi Bolkvadze (Georgia)

Bronze – Rasul Chunayev (Azerbaijan)

5th – Tomohiro Inoue (Japan)

5th – Han-Soo Ryu (Korea)

7th – Frank Staebler (Germany)

8th – Tarek Aziz Benaissa (Algeria)

9th – Islam-Beka Albiev (Russia)

10th – Omid Noroozi (Iran)


Medal Matches

Gold – Davor Stefanek (Serbia) dec. Migran Arutyunyan (Armenia), 1-1

Bronze – Shmagi Bolkvadze (Georgia) dec. Tomohiro Inoue (Japan), 1-0

Bronze – Rasul Chunayev (Azerbaijan) tech. fall Han-Soo Ryu (Korea), 8-0

98 kg/216 lbs.

Gold – Artur Aleksanyan (Armenia)

Silver – Yasmany Daniel Lugo Cabrera (Cuba)

Bronze – Cenk Ildem (Turkey)

Bronze – Ghasem Rezaei (Iran)

5th – Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu (Romania)

5th – Carl Fredrik Schoen (Sweden)

7th – Elis Guri (Bulgaria)

8th – Islam Magomedov (Russia)

9th – Balazs Kiss (Hungary)

10th – Hamdy Moustafa Elsaid Abdelwahab (Egypt)


Medal Matches

Gold – Artur Aleksanyan (Armenia) dec. Yasmany Daniel Lugo Cabrera (Cuba), 3-0

Bronze – Cenk Ildem (Turkey) dec. Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu (Romania), 4-0

Bronze – Ghasem Rezaei (Iran) dec. Carl Fredrik Schoen (Sweden), 4-4