ANGRY SWEDE THROWS DOWN MEDAL, QUITS
By Douglas Hamilton
Reuters
Thursday August 14 2008
BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw
down his 84kg greco-roman bronze medal in protest on Thursday after
his shot at Olympic wrestling gold was ended by a decision denounced
by the Swedish coach as "politics".
Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck during the medal
ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of
the wrestling ring then walked off.
The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by team mates earlier as a
row erupted with judges over the decision in a semi-final bout at the
Chinese Agricultural University Gym with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy,
who went on the take gold.
Abrhamian, who won silver at the Athens 2004 Games, shouted at the
referee and judges then went over to their row of chairs to speak to
them up close.
He angrily threw off the restraining arm of a team official then
turned and left.
Swedish fans booed loudly as the judges filed out of the
arena. Abrahamian said nothing to waiting reporters but whacked an
aluminium barricade with his fist as he left the hall.
"It’s all politics," said Swedish wrestling coach Leo Myllari.
Myllari did not say if he intended to lodge a formal protest over the
decision by referee Jean-Marc Petoud of Switzerland, judge Lee Ronald
Mackay of Canada, and mat chairman Guillermo Orestes Molina of Cuba.
Other favourites went out in the semi-finals or earlier.
Athens 96kg gold medallist Karam Gaber of Egypt failed to make it to
the quarter-finals. Aleksey Mishin of Russia, who took Athens gold in
the 84kg class, was beaten by Minguzzi. Ramaz Nozazde of Georgia, who
took silver in Athens, succumbed to Marek Svec of the Czech Republic,
still fighting at age 35. Svec then lost to Russia’s European champion
Aslanbek Kushtov, who caught him with a spectacular fall.
In the heavyweight 120kg class, Armenia’s Yuri Patrikeev and Dremiel
Byers of the United States, both favoured as finalists, failed to
go through.