Men's Wrestling 18th Asian Games Jakarta Palembang 2018

18th  Asian Games Jakarta

Palembang 2018

Japan's Win first gold in Wrestling

In

Asian Games 2018

Antara/Palembang/ Jakarta

Wrestler Ota Shinobu presented Japan's first gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games wrestling event after defeating Kyrgyzstan’s Zholchubekov Kanybek on Tuesday evening.

In the match at the Assembly Hall, Jakarta Convention Center, Jakarta, Shinobu won the gold medal in the men's Greco-Roman 60 kilogram, leading 8-3 in technical points and 5-0 in classification points.

Ota, who entered the wrestling area confidently, faced intense attacks from Kanybek in the first three-minute period. The 24-year-old Japanese wrestler’s victory was confirmed after he slammed his opponent when the second period just ran for one minute and 35 seconds.

The victory was met with resounding cheers, not only from Japanese athletes and coaches but also from dozens of supporters in the gallery.  

Ota, a medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, cheerfully celebrated his gold medal win by walking around the hall while holding the Japanese flag. He even did a backflip and received loud applause from hundreds of spectators.

The victory ended Japan’s gold wrestling drought after in the last two days Japan collected a silver medal and two bronze medals from the men’s freestyle wrestling events, and two silvers and three bronzes from the women’s freestyle wrestling events.

Ota’s opponent, Kanybek, failed to present the first gold in wrestling for Kyrgyzstan and settled for the silver medal. Meanwhile, the two bronze medals went to Ainagulov Mirambek of Kazakhstan and Mardani Mehrdad of IR Iran.