Greco-Roman/48kg/Morning Session
Pavlov stuns Sanchez Amita, Sim keeps rolling: Alexsandr PAVLOV of Belarus scored a two-point gut wrench late in regulation time and held on for a 2-0 overtime victory over Wilber SANCHEZ AMITA of Cuba to reach the gold-medal match at 48kg Sunday morning at the Georgia World Congress Center.
PAVLOV had lost to SANCHEZ AMITA, the World Champion in 1993 and 1994, in the finals of the 1994 World Championships and had finished only fifth in the European Championships earlier this year.
Now PAVLOV has the nearly-impossible task of trying to stop the 1995 World Champion, SIM Kwon-Ho of Korea. SIM scored a technical superiority victory over Gela PAPASHVILI of Georgia, 11-0 at 4 minutes, 13 seconds.
Gold: SIM Kwon-Ho (KOR) vs. Alexsandr PAVLOV (BLR)
Bronze: Zafar GULYOV (RUS) vs. KANG Yong (PRK)
World Champion HALL wins third straight overtime match, MELNICHENKO earns rematch: Dennis HALL of Stevens Point, Wisconsin can go hard for five minutes...and beyond.
HALL, the 1995 World Champion, went the full eight minutes - including three minutes of overtime - and outlasted 1992 Olympic bronze medalist SHENG Zetian of China 1-0 to advance to the gold-medal match at 57kg Sunday morning at the Georgia World Congress Center.
The only scoring of the match came when HALL exposed SHENG for one point on a gut wrench with 3:15 left in regulation. HALL had put SHENG down on the mat after SHENG had received a caution for passivity. Though there was no further scoring, HALL wore SHENG down in the overtime session and nearly scored takedowns twice in extra time.
Yuriy MELNICHENKO of Kazakhstan advanced to a rematch of last year's World Championship final by beating Rifat YILDIZ of Germany 3-0 in a battle of former World Champions. MELNICHENKO, the 1994 World Champion, lost to HALL in last year's final; YILDIZ was the World Champion in 1990 and 1991.
Quote: ``I didn't want to make any mistakes,'' HALL said. ``I've waited all my life for a chance to go for the gold.''
Gold - Yuriy MELNICHENKO (KAZ) vs. Dennis HALL (USA)
Bronze - Ruslan KHAKYMOV (UKR) vs. SHENG Zetian (CHN)
Four years later, Yolouz makes good: A promotional poster for the wrestling competition in the 1992 Olympic Games at Barcelona featured France's Ghani YOLOUZ and the slogan, "Wrestle on top of the world."
Four years later, YOLOUZ, who finished fifth at Barcelona, has earned a real-life chance to reach the top of the wrestling world at 68kg, beating Kamandar MADZHIDOV of Belarus 4-1 in the semifinals.
YOLOUZ will face Ryszard WOLNY of Poland in the gold-medal match. WOLNY helped make Poland the only nation with two finalists in Group A with a 3-0 shutout win over Grigoriy PULYAYEV of Uzbekistan Saturday morning at the Georgia World Congress Center. WOLNY was joined in the gold-medal round by teammate Andrzej WRONSKI at 100kg.
The 68kg weight class, which started with both the 1992 Olympic gold medalist and the defending World Champion being eliminated without winning a single match, will end with two finalists who have never won a World-level title. YOLOUZ won the silver medal in the 1994 World Championships and the bronze medal in 1993. WOLNY's only previous World-level medal was the bronze medal in the 1990 World Championships. He is competing in his first Olympic Games.
Gold: Ghani YOLOUZ (FRA) vs. Ryszard WOLNY (POL)
Zander shakes off injury: Showing no ill effects from an elbow injury which might have knocked a lesser competitor out of the tournament, 1994 World Champion Thomas ZANDER of Germany beat Gotcha TZITZUASHVILY of Israel 3-1 to advance to the gold-medal match at 82kg Sunday morning at the Georgia World Congress Center.
ZANDER celebrated the win by rushing past security guards into the stands to give his girl friend a sweaty hug.
"My elbow was really bad yesterday," said ZANDER, injured by Russia's Sergey TSVIR in his second-round victory by disqualification Saturday morning. "But I had great doctors and feel really fit today. Mentally, I was very strong, and that made the difference."
ZANDER will meet 20-year-old Hamza YERLIKAYA of Turkey in a showdown between the champions of the past two World Championships. YERLIKAYA outlasted Martin LIDBERG of Sweden 1-0 in overtime.
Gold: Hamza YERLIKAYA (TUR) vs. Thomas ZANDER (GER)
Bronze: Valeriy TSILENT (BLR) vs. Daulet TURLYKHANOV (KAZ)
LJUNGBERG dominant; MILIAN PEREZ, WRONSKI set for showdown
Mikael LJUNGBERG of Sweden, the defending World Champion, is picking right up where he left off last year.
LJUNGBERG, 26, hasn't allowed a point in three matches as he easily advanced to the semifinals Saturday evening at the Georgia World Congress Center.
LJUNGBERG, also the 1993 World Champion, followed up his technical superiority win Saturday morning by blanking Stipe DAMJANOVIC of Croatia 5-0 and pinning Heorihy SOLDADZE of Georgia at 2:45. He will face Sergey LISHTVAN of Bulgaria in the semifinals Sunday morning.
``I've had no problems so far,'' LJUNGBERG said after his win over DAMJANOVIC. ``This match was much tougher than the first one, and I think the next match will be much, much tougher. I feel good about the way I've wrestled.''
LJUNGBERG has been so dominant that he's nearly pushed Hector MILIAN PEREZ of Cuba, the wrestler he defeated in last year's World Championship final, out of the spotlight. MILIAN PEREZ, looking for his first World-level title since winning the Olympic gold medal in 1992, beat Giuseppe GIUNTA of Italy 3-0 and will face two-time World Champion Andrzej WRONSKI of Poland. WRONSKI outlasted Igor GRABOVETSKI of Moldova on a referee's decision after the two had wrestled eight scoreless minutes.
Bronze: Aleksandr TRETYAKOV (RUS) vs. Kamandar MADZHIDOV (BLR)
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