Olympic Games – wrestling: Kurouglieff the 8th Greek medal – 2024-08-10 02:32:52

The 8th – and probably the last – medal was given to the Greek delegation at the Olympic Games by the Hellenized wrestler Dauren Kourougliev.

The steely Kurugliev defeated Miles Amine 5-4 on points in the repechage final to take one of the two bronze medals in the 86kg category in freestyle wrestling.

In fact, the Greek champions took a 4-0 lead and withstood the counterattack of their opponent, who equalized in the last second. However, the Greek objection for the last phase of the thrilling final gave Kurugliev an extra point.

Amine was born and raised in the USA, but represents the homeland of his great-grandfather, who moved from San Marino to America at the beginning of the last century. He is a 2021 Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, but until today, he had never beaten Kurugliev.

The 32-year-old Kurugliev is a Russian originally from Dagestan, but received honorary Greek citizenship at the end of February 2024.

In his first repechage match, this afternoon, Kurugliev easily defeated Australian Lawrence (11-0 on points) with technical superiority. Yesterday he was defeated in the quarter-final round by the Iranian Yazdani-Tsarati.

Earlier, the other Greek wrestler, Giorgos Kouyoumtsidis was defeated by Rashadin (Tajikistan) in the quarter-final and was eliminated without a win, since he will not continue even in the repechage.