ACOG - News - IBM

(22 July 1996; Day 03)

Wrestling Upsets Become Commonplace in Group B

It would be hard to blame any wrestler who might not want to compete on mat A for the rest of the Olympic Greco-Roman competition at the Georgia World Congress Center.

In back-to-back matches in Session 5 Monday morning -- the first round of Group B competition featuring weight classes at 52, 62, 74, 90, and 130kg -- the 1992 Olympic gold and silver medalists at 52kg lost to far less heralded opponents. It was the start of a trend, as the competition at 62kg and 74kg also saw some major surprises.

Jon Ronningen of Norway, the Olympic gold medalist at 52kg in 1988 and 1992, lost 5-0 to Lazaro RIVAS SCULL of Cuba in the fifth match of the session. A few minutes later, 1992 silver medalist Alfred TER-MKRTCHYAN of Germany also was out of the 52kg gold-medal chase after a 2-1 overtime loss to Khaled FARAJ of Syria. A one-point reversal awarded to FARAJ on what appeared to be a slipped gut-wrench attempt to TER-MKRTCHYAN turned out to be the margin of victory.

"No, I'm not surprised (by the victory)," RIVAS SCULL said. "I'm the Pan-American champion and recently won a tournament in Milan, Italy. I feel really good and have a lot of confidence right now. I'm hoping to go all the way."

So the anticipated rematch between the 1992 finalists at 52kg took place in the Pool B consolation round instead of the medals round, with TER-MKRTCHYAN winning 9-0 to make RONNINGEN the second defending Olympic gold medalist eliminated without winning a match.

Akif Mehmet PIRIM of Turkey, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist at 62kg, also met the same fate, losing a 1-1 referee's decision to Ivan IVANOV of Bulgaria. Narrowly escaping an upset at 62kg was Wlodzimierz ZAWADZKI of Poland, who needed a four-point throw with 20 seconds remaining to erase a 3-0 deficit and beat Igor PETRENKO of Belarus 4-3.

"Yeah, I was nervous," ZAWADZKI admitted. "It was the last 30 seconds of the match and I was still losing. I was trying to force a warning against (Petrenko), but at the same time I got the (hand-to-hand) throw that would bring me (4) points."

Two 1992 Olympic medalists at 74kg also fell in the first round. Josef TRACZ of Poland, the silver medalist in 1992 and bronze medalist in 1988, lost 1-0 in overtime to Tamas BERZICZA of Hungary. And bronze medalist Torbjorn KORNBAKK of Sweden was trounced by 11-0 technical superiority in 4 minutes, 27 seconds by KIM Jin-Soo of Korea.

Perhaps they, and the others who lost, felt the same pressure that ZAWADZKI was feeling. "There is only one goal," ZAWADZKI said. "I want to repeat the success of my (Polish) colleagues, who won (two) gold medals (Sunday). But this is sports and anything can happen."

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Robert Sherrill.


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