Hamid Soryan defeated Rovshan Bayramov to win Iran’s first ever gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling.
Despite being one of the powerhouses of Olympic wrestling, Iran had never topped the podium in the discipline before Soryan’s victory over his Azerbaijani opponent in the -55kg category last night.
The 26-year-old five-time champion went in to the fight as favourite and gut-wrenched his opponent to win the first period before winning the second 1-0 to seal victory.
Soryan’s win, the first wrestling medal to be handed out at London 2012, means Iran have their first Olympic champion of these Games.
The defeat was a cruel blow to take for Bayramov, who lost in the final in Beijing four years ago.
Earlier, Hungary’s Peter Modos and Mingiyan Semenov both won bronze medals after their respective wins over Erik Haakan Nyblom and Choi Gyujin in the repechage.
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