WRESTLING: Australia’s Ivan Popov has gone down in the opening round of the men’s 130kg Greco-Roman wrestling event at Carioca Arena 2.

Not done any favours by the draw that pitted him against London 2012 bronze medallist Johan Magnus Euren, Popov was unable to overcome the much bigger Swede who weighed in at 120kg to Popov’s 106kg.

The Swedish wrestler looked to take control early and scored an early point when he pushed Popov out of bounds.

As the match reached the 60-second mark, Euren secured a takedown and moved out to a commanding 5-0 lead.

He extended that lead out to 9-0 with another confident takedown before pinning both of Popov’s shoulders to the mat simultaneously to secure the victory by fall.

Talgat Ilyasov and Sahit Prizreni are Australia’s two remaining wrestlers set to compete at Rio.

Ilyasov competes in the in the 74kg freestyle competition on Friday August 19 while Prezreni will contest the 65kg freestyle event on Sunday August 21.

Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au