Rio Olympics 2016: Taha Akgul wins Turkey’s first gold medal in Rio

Taha Akgul won Turkey’s first gold of the Rio Olympics by beating Iran’s Komeil Ghasemi in the men’s -125kg freestyle final.

Akgul, 25, beat his 28-year-old opponent 3-1 to add to his world titles from 2014 and 2015.

Turkish wrestlers had already won two silver medals and two bronzes at Rio 2016.

Akgul, a 2015 European Games champion, was ninth in the -120kg event at London 2012.

Earlier, Ibrahim Saidau of Belarus and Georgian Geno Petriashvili won their bronze-medal bouts, beating Armenia’s Levan Berianidze and USA’s Tervel Dlagnev respectively.

bbc.com