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Olympic Wrestling Day 11: USA's Mensah-Stock takes gold

American wrestler Tamyra Mensah controls the action in the women's 68kg wrestling final on Tuesday. (Grace Hollars, Usa Today Sports)

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With a small contingent of Americans chanting "USA," Tamyra Mensah-Stock won the women's 68kg freestyle gold medal with a commanding performance against perennial Africa champion Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria.

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The American wrestling is the reigning world champion and came into the bout as the top seed. Oborududu was seeded second.

Mensah-Stock appeared to be injured in the first minute of the bout but resumed after a short hesitation. The injury didn't seem to affect her, as she got the better of the action between two wrestlers with attacking mentalities. She got a two-point takedown after a struggle, but Oborududu earned a point by reversing the position. 

A powerful move from Mensah-Stock, nearly exposing her opponents' shoulders, earned another two points. 

Mensah-Stock fought more defensively in the second round but picked a couple of moments to attack and keep Oborududu from fully committing to the aggressive pursuit she needed.

In one of the bronze medal bouts, Meerim Zhumanazarova became the first woman from Kyrgyzstan to win an Olympic medal. Oborududu is the first Nigerian wrestler to win a medal.

Men's 77kg Greco-Roman: Four-timer finally wins

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Nine years after winning a silver medal in London and 13 years after his Olympic debut, Hungary's Tamas Lorincz finally got his gold, rallying in the second period for a 2-1 win over Kyrgyzstan's Akzhol Makhmudov.

Lorincz moved up in weight classes after being eliminated early in the 2016 Olympics, and the changed suited him. He was the runner-up at the 2017 and 2018 world championships, and lifted the title the next year.

Men's 97kg Greco-Roman: World champ beats Oly champ

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Russian wrestler Musa Evloev beat Armenia's Artur Aleksanyan in a bout that came to a sportsmanlike conclusion when Evloev, already up 5-1, refused to continue attacking against his clearly injured opponent. The rivals hugged before the clock hit zero.

Evloev had won the last two world championships in the weight class. Aleksanyan completed his set of medals after bronze in 2012 and gold in 2016.


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