LONDON: A wrestler who was taken to hospital by ambulance after his heart started racing during a quarter-final defeat got up from his bed and returned to win a bronze medal at the London Olympics on Sunday.
Azerbaijan’s Khetag Gazyumov, 29, left the wrestling mat in a wheelchair after his heart rate soared to a dangerous 260 beats per minute, compared to a typical 60-100.
But he decided to return to the Games when he heard he had earned a place in the bronze medal playoff because he had been beaten by one of the eventual finalists.
He comfortably beat Rustam Iskandari of Tajikistan on the way to bronze.
“I clenched my fist and decided to do the best I could for my country,” he told reporters. “It’s strange, but it’s sport.”
