Pang Qianyu (L) of China competes against Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus during the wrestling women's freestyle 53kg semifinal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Chiba, Japan, Aug. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)
Pang Qianyu of China booked a place in the final of the women's freestyle wrestling 53kg division, in which she will have a fierce competition with Japan's Mayu Mukaida.
TOKYO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's Pang Qianyu advanced into the final of the women's freestyle wrestling 53kg division at the Tokyo Olympic Games here on Thursday.
Pang could win China's first gold medal in women's wrestling since Beijing 2008, when Wang Jiao was crowned in the women's freestyle 72kg category.
Pang beat Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus in a thrilling semifinal as she scored with five seconds left to make a 2-2 VPO1 victory.
"I defeated her twice before, but today is a very tough match because she had a good defence strategy. It's very exciting to win in the last seconds," said Peng, who eliminated the American Jacarra Gwenisha Winchester in the quarterfinals.
Pang will face Japan's Mayu Mukaida in the final on Friday.
Pang Qianyu (R) of China competes against Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus during the wrestling women's freestyle 53kg semifinal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Chiba, Japan, Aug. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)
In other action, David Morris Taylor III of the U.S. edged Iran's Hassan Yazdanicharati 4-3 in the men's freestyle 86kg final.
Taylor III is the only one who can beat Yazdanicharati since the Iranian won the men's freestyle 74kg at Rio 2016.
Artur Naifonov of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) took the bronze medal by defeating Uzbekistan's Javrail Shapiev while San Marino's Myles Nazem Amine won the other bronze.
In the women's freestyle 57kg final, Japan's Risako Kawai won her second Olympic title after a 5-0 convincing victory over Iryna Kurachkina from Belarus.
Helen Louise Maroulis of the U.S. overwhelmed Mongolia's Khongorzul Boldsaikhan for the bronza while Evelina Georgieva Nikolova won a bronze medal for Bulgaria.
ROC's Zavur Uguev, 2018 and 2019 world champion, beat Kumar Ravi of India 7-4 to claim the title of the men's freestyle 57kg.
The two bronze medals went to Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan and Thomas Patrick Gilman from the U.S..
