Featherweight (≤68 kilograms), Men

Ulugbek Rashitov from Uzbeskistan was 17th, and last of the seeds, but won the gold medal with a surprising 34-29 victory against British No. 2 seed, Bradly Sinden. The top seed, South Korean Lee Dae-Hun, lost the bronze medal bout against China’s third seed, and reigning Olympic Champion, Zhao Shuai. The other bronze medal went to Hakan Reçber from Turkey.

Abdullah Sediqi escaped armed gangs in Afghanistan and set out for Europe on foot, enduring endless 12-hour walks each day, to arrive in Belgium where he trained in a refugee camp. The pandemic had hit him hard as he lost his mother to coronavirus before he could return to see her again. Chosen as a member of the Refugee Team, he was handed a near-impossible task in his very first fight, facing Zhao Shuai. Unfazed, he put up fierce resistance to the Chinese gold medallist from Rio but was eventually eliminated on a 22-20 score. While it wasn’t enough to take the match into golden score, the defeated Refugee Athlete could leave the Makuhari Messe Hall with his head held high, knowing that he had given it his all.