Iranian Wrestler Wins Olympic Gold Medal

October 2, 2000 - 0:0
SYDNEY Iran's freestyle wrestler Alireza Dabir won the 2000 Olympic gold medal in the 58kg category here on Sunday morning.
Dabir won the gold in the final round after defeating his rival, a Ukrainian wrestler who won the world's bronze medal in 1999 in Turkey, in the normal time of 3-0.
Dabir's gold in freestyle wrestling adds one more to two already won by Iran. Two other Iranian athletes won a gold medal each in the Olympic weightlifting competition in this year's Sydney Olympics.
In Olympic history, only eight Iranian athletes have had the honor of winning gold medals.
The late Gholamreza Takhti and Imamali Habibi each won a gold medal in two different categories in freestyle wrestling in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
Abdollah Movahhed, in freestyle wrestling and Mohammad Nassiri, in weightlifting, won separate gold medals in the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.
Rassoul Khadem, an Iranian wrestler, won a gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
And, this year, Alireza Dabir, in freestyle wrestling, and Hossein Tavakkoli and Hossein Rezazadeh, in weightlifting, won three gold medals in the spectacular Sydney Olympic Games 2000.
(IRNA)