Cuba’s Mijain Lopez remains the Olympic champion in men’s 120-kg. Greco-Roman wrestling after beating Estonian Heiki Nabi here Monday in the gold medal match at the London Games.
Lopez, a four-time world champion who took the gold at the 2008 Games in Beijing, was the consensus favorite going into the competition.
Nabi, who beat Lopez in 2006 at the World Championships, had to settle for the silver after the Cuban thoroughly dominated in the match at London ExCeL Arena, while Turkey’s Riza Kayaalp and Sweden’s Johan Euren received bronze medals.
The 29-year-old Lopez carried the Cuban flag in the procession at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.
In addition, Cuba’s Yarisley Silva, fifth in the 2011 World Athletic Championships at Daegu, South Korea, and Pan American champion, became the first pole vaulter from her country to win an Olympic medal.
She took the silver and if she had soared over the bar at 4.80 meters (15 feet 8 inches) in her last jump of the competition, she would have snatched the gold from America’s Jenn Suhr - but the height eluded her and she had to make do with second place.
