Yoshida carries off coach after wrestling treble

I / London August 10, 2012, 10:49 IST

Japan's Saori Yoshida won a third Olympic 55kg women's freestyle wrestling title on Thursday and celebrated by performing a cartwheel and grappling with her coach.

She defeated Canada's Tonya Verbeek, bronze medallist in Beijing four years ago and her beaten opponent in the inaugural 2004 final in Athens, in the gold medal match.

A day after Japan's Kaori Icho completed a hat-trick of Olympic 63kg golds, and compatriot Hitori Obama became the 48kg champion, Yoshida's success saw Japan take three of the four women's wrestling titles on offer.

Yoshida dumped Verbeek on her back for a three-point score in the opening period and sealed victory with a takedown in the second, upheld despite a Canadian challenge.

 

An elated Yoshida -- roared on by chants of "Saori, Saori" from the massed ranks of Japanese fans -- celebrated with a cartwheel, lifted up the Japan team wresting coach, before flipping him onto the mat and then carrying him on her shoulders.

Yoshida's conclusive win rounded off a Games where she didn't concede a point.

It also meant Yoshida, who has also won nine world championships, had equalled the record of 12 world-level titles held by Russia's three-time Olympic Greco-Roman gold medal winner Alexander Karelin.