DUSHANBE, August 21, 2008, Asia-Plus — Yusuf Abdusalomov has grabbed the second Olympic medal for Tajikistan, finishing second in the Men’s Freestyle Wrestling 84 kilogram competition in Beijing
In the final that was held on August 21, Yusuf competed for gold medal with Georgia’s Revazi Mindorashvili. Abdusalomov took the first period 3-2, but, unfortunately, lost the second period, and Georgia’s wrestler then went on to win the deciding period 4-0.
We will recall that in the round of 16, Abdusalomov defeated Australia’s Kumar Sandep 8-0 and in the quarterfinal, he beat Taras Danko of Ukraine 7-0. In the semifinal, Tajik wrestler defeated Serhat Balci of Turkey 3-0 and 1-0.
Yusuf Abdusalomov finished ninth in Athens. He took a gold medal in 2003 Asian Championships (-74 kg). Yusuf also took a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships (-84 kg) and a bronze medal in the 2008 Asian Championships.
It is the second medal of Tajikistan in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The first one, bronze medal, was won by Rasoul Boqiyev, one of the top judokas in Tajikistan in the -73 kg category. He won the bronze medal by defeating Dirk van Tichelt of Belgium with a yuko and a koka on August 12. In the semifinal, our athlete lost to Wang Ki-chun, a 19-year-old judoka from the Republic of Korea, who had impressed the world with a victory over 2004 Athens champion Lee Won-hee at the 2007 World Championships.
Rasoul Boqiyev, ranked No 3 in the world in his weight category, claimed his Olympic berth by finishing third at the 2007 World Judo Championships in Rio de Janeiro.
Besides, two Tajik boxers, Jahon Qurbonov (-81 kg) and Anvar Yunusov (-51 kg), were among top five boxers in their weight categories in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Since 1991, Tajikistan has achieved such success in the Olympic Games for the first time.
