Japan trio rule Olympic freestyle wrestling
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E-mail Xinhua, August 10, 2012
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| Janpan wrestling legend Saori Yoshida (C) kisses her gold medal after winning women's 55kg freestyle final match at the London Olympic Games on August 9, 2012. [Jin Liwang/Xinhua] |
![Janpan wrestling legend Saori Yoshida (C) kisses her gold medal after winning women's 55kg freestyle final match at the London Olympic Games on August 9, 2012. [Jin Liwang/Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20120810/8c89a590f56c118ee5e059.jpg "Janpan wrestling legend Saori Yoshida (C) kisses her gold medal after winning women's 55kg freestyle final match at the London Olympic Games on August 9, 2012. [Jin Liwang/Xinhua]")
Janpan wrestling legend Saori Yoshida won her third successive Olympic gold medal on Thursday and gave the Japanese three of the four gold medals on offer at London Olympic Games as the women's wrestling competition came to a close.
Yoshida beat Tonya Verbeek of Canada 2-0 (3-0, 2-0) on a pair of single-leg attacks in the 55kg final to win for a third successive Olympics and equal the mark set by teammate Kaori Icho on Wednesday evening.
"I'm super happy. This is the biggest medal I've got because I have trained hard before I came to London 2012. I have gone through lots of tough training and difficulties," said Yoshida.
Yoshida's three Olympic golds medals and nine world championship titles now equals that of Greco-Roman great Alexander Karelin from Russia for overall world-level titles and consecutive world-level championships.
"I have taken 12 gold medals and every single medal is important to me. But the medal I got at London 2012 is very important," Yoshida added.
The bronze went to Columbian wrestler Jackeline Renteria and Former world champion Yuliya Ratkevich from Azerbaizan.
Russia's Natalia Vorobeva pinned big name Bulgaria Stanka Zlateva Hristova for the gold medal in the 72kg weight category as the defending champion China's Wang Jiao suffered a quick defeat against Vorobeva in the semifinals and took the fifth place at last.
In the bronze medal matches, Azerbaizan's Guzel Manyurova drove Wang out of bounds for the winning point. It was Manyurova's second Olympic Games medal after taking the silver in Athens for Russia.
Maider Unda Gonzalez de Audicana of Spain claimed a 2-0 (1-0, 1-0) victory and the bronze medal.
Japan's Hitomi Obara claimed title at 48kg yesterday, which gave Japan its first Olympic Games gold medal in this weight category. Beijing champion Carol Huynh of Canada won bronze and the other was grabbed by Clarissa Chun of the United States.
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