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| Event type

Middleweight, Freestyle (≤74 kilograms), Men

Date10 August 2012
StatusOlympic
LocationExCeL, Newham, London (North Arena 2)
Participants19 from 19 countries
FormatSingle elimination tournament. Competitors losing to the finalists entered repechage tournament for bronze medals.

A successful college-level wrestler, American Jordan Burroughs had exploded onto the international scene by winning the Pan American and World Championship titles in the men’s middleweight freestyle wrestling division in 2011 and was the favorite to win Olympic Gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics. His greatest rival was Russia’s Denis Tsargush, two-time World (2009 and 2010) and three-time European Champion (2010-2012) in the category. Another strong challenger was Sadegh Goudarzi of Iran, the Asian Champion in 2009 and 2012 and World Championship runner-up the past two years.

Burroughs and Tsargush were drawn in the same half, where the American edged out the Russian in the semi-finals, while Goudarzi was the winner of his bracket and advanced to challenge the World Champion in the gold medal match. Both wrestlers were extremely agile fighters, but Borroughs was quicker in each round, ably dodging all of the Iranians attacks and scoring in the final seconds of both rounds to win the United States’ first wrestling gold medal of the Games.

Of the two wrestlers who met in the first bronze medal match, Soslan Tigiyev of Uzbekistan was the more heralded, having won a silver medal at the 2008 Games and bronze at the 2006 Asian Games. His opponent, Gábor Hatos of Hungary, had finished 15th at the 2004 edition and had bronze medals from the 2006 European Championships and the 2010 World Championships. Tigiyev won the first round with a takedown and drew the advantaged position in a second round par terre, which he was able to convert not only to a point, but a bronze medal as well. For the final podium spot Tsargush faced Matt Gentry of Canada, a Pan American bronze medalist in 2007 and 2011 who finished 18th at the 2008 Olympics. As expected, the Russian had little trouble scoring against the Canadian, winning the match, and the bronze medal, 1-0 and 2-0 in the first and second rounds respectively.

In November 2012, Soslan Tigiyev (UZB) was revealed to have a positive test for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone), and was disqualified, losing his bronze medal. Hungarian Gábor Hatos, who lost to Tigiyev in the repêchage final, was advanced to the bronze medal position. At Beijing in 2008, Tigiyev had also won a bronze medal in this class, but in October 2016, he was revealed to have a positive test for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone), and was disqualified, losing his bronze medal.

PosWrestlerNOC
1Jordan BurroughsUSAGold
2Sadegh GoudarziIRISilver
=3Gábor HatosHUNBronze
=3Denis TsargushRUSBronze
5Matt GentryCAN
6Davit KhutsishviliGEO
7Augusto MidanaGBS
8Əşrəf ƏliyevAZE
9Abdulkhakim ShapiyevKAZ
10Bilel OuechtatiTUN
11Ricardo RobertyVEN
12Pürevjavyn ÖnörbatMGL
13Narsingh YadavIND
14Kiril TerzievBUL
15Sohsuke TakataniJPN
=16Zhang ChongyaoCHN
=16Oleg MotsalinGRE
18Francisco SolerPUR
DQSoslan TigiyevUZB1

Round One (10 August 2012)

Winner of each match advanced to round two. Losers to eventual finalists advanced to repêchage round one.

Match #1 Soslan TigiyevUZB Bye
Match #2 Oleg MotsalinGRE Bye
Match #3 Sadegh GoudarziIRI Bye
Match #4 Kiril TerzievBUL Bye
Match #5 Gábor HatosHUN Bye
Match #6 Zhang ChongyaoCHN Bye
Match #7 Abdulkhakim ShapiyevKAZ Bye
Match #8 Bilel OuechtatiTUN Bye
Match #9 Jordan BurroughsUSA Bye
Match #10 Francisco SolerPUR Bye
Match #11 Matt GentryCAN Bye
Match #12 Narsingh YadavIND Bye
Match #13 Denis TsargushRUS Bye
Match #14 Əşrəf ƏliyevAZE Sohsuke TakataniJPN Decision by shutout (2 - 0)
Match #15 Augusto MidanaGBS Ricardo RobertyVEN Decision (3 - 2)
Match #16 Davit KhutsishviliGEO Pürevjavyn ÖnörbatMGL Decision (3 - 1)

Round Two (10 August 2012)

Winner of each match advanced to quarter-finals. Losers to eventual finalists advanced to repêchage round one.

Match #1 Soslan TigiyevUZB Oleg MotsalinGRE Decision by shutout (4 - 0)
Match #2 Sadegh GoudarziIRI Kiril TerzievBUL Decision (8 - 1)
Match #3 Gábor HatosHUN Zhang ChongyaoCHN Decision by shutout (4 - 0)
Match #4 Abdulkhakim ShapiyevKAZ Bilel OuechtatiTUN Decision (6 - 3)
Match #5 Jordan BurroughsUSA Francisco SolerPUR Decision by shutout (10 - 0)
Match #6 Matt GentryCAN Narsingh YadavIND Decision (4 - 1)
Match #7 Denis TsargushRUS Əşrəf ƏliyevAZE Decision (2 - 1)
Match #8 Davit KhutsishviliGEO Augusto MidanaGBS Decision (4 - 1)

Quarter-Finals (10 August 2012)

Winner of each match advanced to semi-finals. Losers to eventual finalists advanced to repêchage round two.

Match #1 Sadegh GoudarziIRI Soslan TigiyevUZB Decision (4 - 1)
Match #2 Gábor HatosHUN Abdulkhakim ShapiyevKAZ Decision by shutout (2 - 0)
Match #3 Jordan BurroughsUSA Matt GentryCAN Decision (3 - 2)
Match #4 Denis TsargushRUS Davit KhutsishviliGEO Decision by shutout (5 - 0)

Semi-Finals (10 August 2012)

Winner of each match advanced to final. Losers advanced to repêchage final.

Match #1 Sadegh GoudarziIRI Gábor HatosHUN Decision by shutout (4 - 0)
Match #2 Jordan BurroughsUSA Denis TsargushRUS Decision (5 - 4)

Repêchage Round One (10 August 2012)

Winner of each match advanced to repêchage round two.

Match #1 Kiril TerzievBUL Bye
Match #2 Francisco SolerPUR Bye

Repêchage Round Two (10 August 2012)

Winner of each match advanced to repêchage final.

Match #1 Soslan TigiyevUZB Kiril TerzievBUL Decision by shutout (6 - 0)
Match #2 Matt GentryCAN Francisco SolerPUR Decision by shutout (9 - 0)

Repêchage Final (10 August 2012)

Match #1 Soslan TigiyevUZB Gábor HatosHUN Decision by shutout (2 - 0)
Match #2 Denis TsargushRUS Matt GentryCAN Decision by shutout (3 - 0)

Final Round (10 August 2012)

Match 1/2 Jordan BurroughsUSA Sadegh GoudarziIRI Decision by shutout (2 - 0)