Iranian heavyweight wrestler Komeil Ghasemi won a silver medal in Men's freestyle 125 kg wrestling event in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Losing the final match to his Turkish rival Taha Akgul on Saturday, August 20, Ghasemi finished in the second place of the heavyweight category, Mehr News Agency reported.
Bringing Iran the first silver medal in Rio, Ghasemi, 28, added to the number of Iran's medals, which now stand at eight in total. In the 2012 London Olympic Games, he had won a bronze.
Ghasemi started off his run with a 5-2 victory over Canada’s Korey Jarvis to reach the last 16. There he defeated Kamal Abdelmottaleb of Egypt 7-0 to book his slot in the quarter-finals.
He made a narrow win against Georgia's Geno Petriashvili and qualified for the semifinals where he met Tervel Dlagnev of the US. In a brilliant performance, Ghasemi thrashed his American rival 10-0 in just 33 seconds to win the match and reach the final.
With the two gold medals in weightlifting, two bronze in Greko Roman wrestling, one bronze in taekwondo and a gold, silver and bronze in freestyle wrestling, Iran is ranked 23rd in the medals tally. The standing can improve if the three remaining Iranian athletes - two in freestyle wrestling and one in marathon - win a medal.
