Japan took two of the four gold medals on offer at the Olympic women’s freestyle wrestling yesterday, softening the blow of five-time world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi’s shock semifinal exit earlier in the day. Saori Yoshida defeated Tonya Verbeek of Canada to add the 55kg Olympic title to her world crown, while Kaori Icho overcame American Sara McMann to win gold in the 63kg division.
Irini Merleni claimed the first medal of the event making its Olympic debut, edging Chiharu Icho, younger sister of Kaori, in a tense tussle neither wrestler deserved to lose.
Hamaguchi, knocked out in the semifinals of the 72kg by eventual gold medal winner Wang Xu of China, had to be content with a bronze in the heavyweight division. An historic day was overshadowed by controversy in Hamaguchi’s bout against teenager Wang, whom she beat in the 2002 World Championship.
Hamaguchi felt Wang was unfairly awarded two points for a move which she had initiated, a decision which cost the current world champion a shot at the gold medal.
Flag-bearer for Japan at the opening ceremony, Hamaguchi looked dumbfounded while her father and coach Heigo, a former professional wrestler, was so incensed by the referee’s decison that he had to be restrained by police.
Having shed a few tears, Hamaguchi regained her composure to beat Svitlana Sayenko of the Ukraine in the bronze medal match to ensure she didn’t leave the Greek capital empty-handed. Remarkably, the softly-spoken 26-year-old, who received a black eye in her bout for third place, was far from bitter about her surprise semifinal defeat that left many in the area shaking their heads.
Hamaguchi said she could understand her father’s emotional outburst up in the stands. “When we win we both share the joy, and when we lose we both share the same feeling of depression,” she said. A tearful Wang admitted she surprised herself in the competition by going as far as she did.
“I’m so excited to get the gold because I came here without high expectations,” said the 18-year-old. “I just planned to do my best and trained as hard as I could. I told myself I would make sure I came home without regrets.”
There was more drama in the bout between Merleni, the reigning 48kg world champion, and Chiharu Icho. In a war of attrition the scores were tied at 2-2 in regulation time with neither athlete giving an inch.
But because three points is the minimum required to win a match, the bout went into a three minute period of extra-time.
As the scores were still even after nine minutes, the referee gets the final vote and raised Merleni’s hand instead of Icho’s.
Yoshida, the reigning world champion, won 6-0 in a one-sided contest and celebrated her victory by lifting her coach onto her shoulders before somersaulting across the mat, much to the delight of the large Japanese contingent in the crowd. McMann, who lost to Kaori in the World Championship final last year, was inconsolable after ending up a loser once more, but received a warm embrace on the podium from the compassionate 20-year-old Japanese.
