OLYMPICS /
Other Teams
Italian Minguzzi wins men's 84kg wrestling
Xinhua/Agencies
Updated: 2008-08-14 18:01
Andrea Minguzzi of Italy (Blue) wrestles with Zoltan Fodor of Hungary in the Greco-Roman wrestling 84kg division during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 14, 2008. [ Agencies]
|
BEIJING--Italian wrestler Andrea Minguzzi won the gold medal here Thursday afternoon in the Olympic men's 84kg Greco-Roman wrestling after a disputed semifinal fight with Swedish Ara Abrahamian.
With a brilliant throw of silver medalist Zoltan Fodor of Hungary to the passivity zone, Minguzzi unquestionably won the title in the final.
Minguzzi said, "To me, it is worth the world. I'm ecstatic right now. I couldn't be happier."
Fodor said, "I'm quite disappointed and today is Minguzzi's lucky day. He made the right action at the right moment. He is not stronger than me, but lucky."
The most frustrated wrestler today was obviously not the Hungarian. Abrahamian was enraged after being judged losing points to Minguzzi in the semifinal Thursday morning. The Swedish even posed physical threats to the head referee after failed verbal appeals.
Abrahamian, silver medalist in the Athens Olympics, continued showing his uncontrolled rage by refusing the bronze medal he won later and walking down from the podium a few seconds into the victory ceremony.
The Swedish said, "I think that my semifinal loss was totally unjustified." The furious wrestler was persuaded by his friends to compete in the bronze medal competition.
"I didn't want to let them down, so I wrestled, but I don't care about this (bronze) medal," Abrahamian said. "This will be my last match."
Nazmi Avluca of Turkey won another bronze in the same category.
