World champs Stefanek, Aleksanyan headline finalists on last day of Greco-Roman wrestling in Rio

Davor Stefanek (SRB) after pinning Shmagi Bolkvadze (GEO) in the 66 kg semifinals. Photo: Tony Rotundo, WrestersAreWarriors.com.

RIO DE JANEIRO – The 66 kg and 98 kg Olympic finals are set after an exciting morning session of Greco-Roman wrestling at Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


2014 World champion Davor Stefanek of Serbia will take on the dynamic Armenian Migran Arutyunyan for gold at 66 kg.


World No. 6 Stefanek took down the reigning World champion Frank Staebler of Germany in the quarterfinals, 6-2, avenging his loss from last year’s World Championships. In the semifinals Stefanek struck with a tight front headlock to pin World No. 10 Shmagi Bolkvadze of Georgia in 1:26.


Now guaranteed at least a silver medal, Stefanek will go down in history as the first Olympic medalist for Serbia.


Arutyunyan, ranked No. 8 in the World, stormed to the finals with wins over two past World champions, Han-Soo Ryu of Korea and Rasul Chunayev of Azerbaijan. He was fifth in the World Championships last year.


Armenia pushed two wrestlers into tonight’s finals with two-time World champion Artur Aleksanyan holding serve atop the 98 kg bracket. He is set to face surprising Cuban Yasmany Daniel Lugo Cabrera in the gold medal match.


Ranked No. 2 in the World, Aleksanyan won 5-2 over Italy’s Daigoro Timoncini in his opener, then picked up two quick technical falls over Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu of Romania and Cenk Ildem of Turkey to return to the finals for the fourth straight year in World and Olympic competition.


World No. 8 Lugo Cabrera will attempt to give Cuba its third Greco-Roman Olympic gold in Rio. His signature victory came in the quarterfinals over 2012 Olympic champion Ghasem Rezaei of Iran, 4-0. Lugo Cabrera defeated World No. 17 Carl Fredrik Schoen in the semifinals, 2-0.


There are six wrestlers in each weight class still in the hunt for a bronze medal.


With the 66 kg bracket amassing a talent pool of two Olympic champions, six World champions and a handful of additional World and Olympic medalists, several world-class competitors were eliminated early in the day.


In the round of 16, 2015 World champion Chunayev edged 2008 Olympic champion Islam-Beka Albiev of Russia, 3-2, and 2013 World champion Ryu topped 2012 Olympic silver medalist Tamas Lorincz of Hungary, 4-0. 2012 Olympic champion Omid Noroozi of Iran was bounced in the quarterfinals by Georgia’s Bolkvadze in the quarterfinals. The trio of Albiev, Lorincz and Noroozi did not qualify for the repechage.


Excluding Lugo Cabrera’s performance, 98 kg played out without any major upsets. The one outlier is Schoen dominating 2011 Elis Guri of Bulgaria, 9-0, in the quarters.


Greco-Roman competition will resume at 3 p.m. (ET) today with the repechage rounds and medal matches at 66 kg and 98 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

Finals Matchups
66 kg/145.5 lbs.

Gold – Davor Stefanek (Serbia) vs. Migran Arutyunyan (Armenia)


Bronze – Shmagi Bolkvadze (Georgia) vs. Repechage 1 Winner

Repechage 1 – Frank Staebler (Germany) vs. Tomohiro Inoue (Japan)


Bronze – Rasul Chunayev (Azerbaijan) vs. Repechage 1 Winner

Repechage 1 – Han-Soo Ryu (Korea) vs. Adham Ahmed Saleh Kahk (Egypt)

98 kg/216 lbs.

Gold – Artur Alesanyan (Armenia) vs. Yasmany Daniel Lugo Cabrera (Cuba)


Bronze – Cenk Ildem (Turkey) vs. Repechage 1 Winner

Repechage 1 – Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu (Romania) vs. Daigoro Timoncini (Italy)


Bronze – Carl Fredrik Schoen (Sweden) vs. Repechage 1 Winner

Repechage 1 – Di Xiao (China) vs. Ghasem Rezaei (Iran)