Italy’s Minguzzi surprise winner in wrestling’s 84kg class

BEIJING – Andrea Minguzzi did a backflip, hoisted his coach and hauled him to the middle of the mat, wrapped himself in the Italian flag and ran a victory lap around the arena. A happy winner, obviously, after coming from nowhere to steal wrestling's most coveted prize when he defeated Zoltan Fodor of Hungary in the 84-kilogram finals Thursday. The win makes him Italy's first Olympic wrestling champion in 20 years. Fodor, also an unlikely finalist, was eighth in the world last year and, only three years ago, was 30th in the world juniors. But not as unlikely as Minguzzi, who had finished 45th, 18th, 17th, 28th and 27th in his previous five world championship tournaments. The bronze medals were won by Nazmi Avluca of Turkey and Sweden's Ara Abrahamian, the silver medalist in Athens. Fodor won the first period of the gold-medal match 1-1 on tiebreaker, but Minguzzi won the second by the same score before throwing Fodor in the third to win 4-0 and finish off the day of his life. In order, the 26-year-old Italian policeman: —Upset 2004 gold medalist Aleksey Mishin, last year's world champion, in what may go down as one of the biggest shockers in Olympic wrestling. Mishin is a four-time European champion who was in control after winning the second period 3-0, only to lose 2-1 in the third. —Turned a disputed point into a semifinals surprise — that word keeps coming up with him — against Abrahamian. Sweden coach Leo Myllar used words much stronger than disputed. "It's all politics, and it's all corrupt," he said. In the oft-mysterious world of international wrestling, in which the rules are quirky and can be interpreted in widely varying ways, sometimes it's all in the game. After he took the bronze, two-time former world champion Abrahamian said, "I don't care about this medal. I wanted gold. This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure." Abrahamian's unhappiness doesn't take away from Minguzzi's accomplishment. Minguzzi's golden day proved that even a relatively obscure wrestler — despite his third-place finish in this year's European championships — can get hot and win the Olympics, especially with all matches in a weight class now wrestled in one day. Minguzzi certainly couldn't hide his delight, hugging and kissing the flower girls on the medal stand, biting into his gold medal and playing to the crowd, which reveled in his enthusiasm. Before Minguzzi, the last Italian to win an Olympic wrestling gold was Vincenzo Maenza, who won at 48 kg in 1984 and 1988. Brad Vering, last year's world silver medalist from the United States, lost to Denis Forov of Armenia in the round of 16 and did not medal. He plans to retire. "It doesn't end up the way I wanted it to end up, but I'm not going to let my whole career just ride on one loss in the Olympic Games," said Vering, a former NCAA champion at Nebraska. – AP