Olympics: Greco-Roman champion Ismael Borrero falls to Ramaz Zoidze in day of upsets

Georgia’s Ramaz Zoidze pulled off one of the biggest upsets in wrestling at the Tokyo Olympics when he overcame reigning champion, Ismael Borrero of Cuba, in the Greco-Roman lightweight category on Tuesday.

Borrero, who stepped up from the bantamweight category and is a twice world champion, struggled to get the better of the 25-year-old Georgian in the last-16 bout. (Full Tokyo 2020 Coverage)

Down 1-0, Zoidze drew level with a passivity call in the second period before he went ahead with a takedown. Although Borrero made it 3-2 in the dying seconds, Zoidze held on for victory to move into the quarter-finals.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics Day 11 blog

Zoidze continued to impress, beating the Refugee Olympic Team’s Iraq-born wrestler Aker Al Obaidi with a 10-0 technical superiority victory to advance to the semi-finals where he will be up against Mohammadreza Geraei of Iran.

“I felt really good, especially in the first bout … My mind and body were working perfectly. Now I’m feeling disappointed, I gave it all,” said the 21-year-old Al Obaidi, who won his previous bout 8-0.

“I don’t have words to thank (wrestling governing body) UWW and the IOC, I’m really happy to compete because of them. I’m very young and I will continue competing.”

Geraei moved into the semis after he edged Germany’s three-times world champion Frank Staebler despite finding himself down 4-2 at the break.

South Korea’s twice world champion Ryu Han-su was upset in the last-16 by Egypt’s two-times Under-23 world champion Mohamed Ibrahim El-Sayed, who took a 6-0 lead in the first period.

Ryu, who beat Algeria’s Abdelmalek Merabet by technical superiority in the previous round, was able to cut the deficit against El-Sayed, but the Egyptian clinched the tie 7-6 to advance.

Women’s world champion Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan cruised into the women’s middleweight freestyle semi-finals without conceding a point in her two bouts.

Tynybekova, a four-times Asian champion, first beat Latvian Anastasija Grigorjeva 8-0 before wrapping up a 6-0 victory over Kriszta Incze by pinning the Romanian.