COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS
August 4, 2021 at 22:05 JST
Yukako Kawai, left, and Kyrgyzstan's Aisuluu Tynybekova compete during the women's 62kg freestyle wrestling final match at the Tokyo Olympics in Chiba on Aug. 4. (AP Photo)
CHIBA--Yukako Kawai denied Kyrgyzstan a first gold medal in women's wrestling when she beat reigning world champion Aisuluu Tynybekova 4-3 in the freestyle middleweight final at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday.
In a tense contest, Kawai was under pressure in the dying seconds and just about managed to stay on the mat as Tynybekova looked to score when the buzzer sounded.
“It’s the best day of my life,” Kawai, a former Asian champion, said.
Tynybekova, the No. 1 seed, had won her first three matches by a combined score of 24-0. It’s Japan’s first wrestling gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
Kawai’s sister, Risako Kawai, will wrestle for her second Olympic gold Thursday in the 57-kg class.
Bulgaria’s Taybe Yusein needed only 56 seconds to overcome Russian Olympic Committee’s Lyubov Ovcharova 10-0 for bronze while Ukraine’s Iryna Koliadenko beat Latvia’s Anastasija Grigorjeva 3-1 for the second bronze.
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