Day 2 Session 1 Olympic Recap

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Another great morning session of Greco-Roman action on day two in Rio. Just like yesterday, we see a rematch of one world final from last September, as well as a champ trying to defend his title.

At 130kg, we will see Mijain Lopez (CUB) vs Riza Kayaalp (TUR) once again. These two met in the world finals in 2011 and 2015, with Kayaalp coming out on top both times, as well as in the semis four years ago in London. Lopez won there en route to his second Olympic gold. He will try to make history tonight and join Carl Westergren (SWE) and Aleksandr Karelin (RUS) as the only three-time Greco gold medalists ever.

Kayaalp was responsible for knocking American Robby Smith out of repechage. Smith lost his first round match 8-2 to Sabah Shariati (AZE). Just like their match in November, Shariati blew the match open with four gut wrenches when Smith got put down. Kayaalp then gutted Shariati four times in the quarters, knocking Smith out of the competition.

Ben Provisor came out with guns blazing in his first round match at 85kg. Facing off against last year’s world silver medalist Rustam Assakalov (UZB), Provisor was digging undercooks and taking ground in the first period. He got Assakalov put down in par terre, only to get reversed for the first points of the match.

But Provisor was put down in the second and thrown for four. Assakalov was able to hold on despite getting put down and getting hit for a caution and two when fleeing against Provisor. World No. 2 Viktor Lorincz (HUN) took out Assakalov 2-1 in the next match, eliminating Provisor and ending all hopes of any of our Greco athletes placing.

The finals at 85kg feature two familiar opponents. Zhan Beleniuk (UKR) is the reigning world champ from Las Vegas and moonwalked to the finals, as was expected when the draws were released. His opponent is No. 3 Davit Chakvetadze (RUS), who outscored his four opponents 27-4 on his way to the gold medal match. Even more impressively, all four of those bouts were against guys ranked in the top 10 in the world.

Repechage and medal matches start this afternoon at 2 p.m. central time and will all be on one mat.