Turkey’s Sahin wins wrestling gold at 66 kg

BEIJING (AP): World champion Ramazan Sahin of Turkey has won the Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medal at 66 kilograms (145{ pounds) with a tight victory over Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine.

Sahin, also the European champion, won Wednesday’s fight 2-2, 2-1, 2-2 . He lost the first period on a tiebreaker because Stadnik scored the final points of the period, but winning the third the same way when he scored last.

Stadnik, leading 2-0 in the third, had Sahin in a gut wrench along the edge of the minute but Sahin managed to tilt Stadnik’s shoulders toward the mat for exposure while working his way out from the bottom position.

The bronzes went to Otar Tushishvili of Georgia, a semifinal loser to Sahin, and Sushil Kumar _ only the second Beijing medal won by India, a country of more than 1 billion.