Hungary’s Tamas Lorincz has secured his first Olympic gold medal in the men’s Greco-Roman 77kg.
He beat Kyrgyzstan’s Akzol Makhmudov 2-1 in the men’s Greco-Roman 77kg event at Tokyo 2020. YABIKU Shohei and Rafig Huseynov won bronze.
It was a tough opening period for the reigning world champion as Makhmudov took an early one point lead but two points in the second period were enough to secure Lorincz his first Olympic title.
Being able to be crowned an Olympic champion meant everything to the Hungarian wrestler.
“I learned a lot during the last five years, did a lot of training even during the pandemic time, with my younger brother (Viktor Lorincz, who has reached the Greco-Roman 87kg final),” he said. “That’s the reason we are both here in the final of the Olympics.”
At London 2012, the 34-year-old lost in the Greco-Roman 66kg final to KIM Hyeon-woo settling for silver before his Rio 2016 campaign came to end in the 1/8 finals.
Lorincz becomes just the seventh Greco-Roman wrestler from Hungary to win a world title and Olympic title but the first since Peter Farkas at Barcelona 1992 (he also won in the 1991 World Championship).
Sadly, this will be the last time the world will see Lorincz on the Olympic stage with the Hungarian telling press this would be his “last Olympics”.
Japan’s YABIKU Shohei won bronze in a thumping 13-3 defeat of Islamic Republic of Iran’s Mohammadali Geraei while Azerbaijan’s Rafig Huseynov beat Aremina’s Karapet Chalyan to claim the other bronze medal.
source (article; picture): Olympics.com, Tokyo 2020; Eurosport
Vocabulary
| Greco-Roman wrestling | kötöttfogás/ franciabirkózás |
| tough | kemény |
| reigning | regnáló |
| lead | vezetés |
| wrestler | birkózó |
| to settle for | megelégedni valamivel |
| to come to end | véget érni |
| thumping | döbbenetes |
| to claim medal | érmet szerezni |
