Sports, Rio 2016

Turkish wrestler wins country's first gold in Rio

Taha Akgul won Turkey’s first gold at Rio after he defeated Komeil Ghasemi of Iran 3-1 in the 125-kg freestyle event.

21.08.2016 - Update : 22.08.2016
Turkish wrestler wins country's first gold in Rio Taha Akgul of Turkey (red) celebrates his victory over Komeil Nemat Ghasemi (not seen) of Iran compete after the men's 125kg freestyle final match of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 20, 2016. (Okan Özer - Anadolu Agency)

NEW YORK

Brazil’s football team redeemed itself Saturday by beating German 5-4 on penalty kicks in the gold medal match at the famed Maracana Stadium.

The win allows the Brazilians -- world famous for their love for “the beautiful game” -- to turn the page on a disappointing two-year spell since being humiliated by a German squad at home during the 2014 World Cup Finals.

Neymar scored the deciding goal by placing the ball in the upper right hand corner of the net on the fifth kick. The superstar scored Brazil’s only goal in regulation that ended 1-1.

In the bronze medal match, Umar Sadiq scored twice to help Nigeria beat Honduras 3-2.

Taha Akgul won Turkey’s first gold at Rio after he defeated Komeil Ghasemi of Iran 3-1 in the 125-kg freestyle event.

Selim Yasar of Turkey took silver after losing 3-0 against Russia’s Abdulrashid Sadulev in the 86-kg category.

More redemption in Rio came in the men’s 4x400m relay. This time it was the U.S. reclaiming gold in a time of 2 minutes, 57.30 seconds. Jamaica took silver and the Bahamans, who beat the Americans for the gold at the 2012 Games in London, settled for bronze.

USA also won the women’s 4x400m relay, with Jamaica taking silver and Great Britain bronze.

Long-distance legend Mo Farah won the 5,000 meters following his 10,000 victory last week to become the first runner in four decades to win a back-to-back 5,000-10,000 double at the Games.

The U.S.’s Paul Chelimo won the silver and Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia took bronze.

Matt Centrowitz won his first Olympic gold at 1,500m, also the first for Team USA in over a century.

The woman who was made famous for having high levels of testosterone, Caster Semenya, won the 800m gold medal. Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi finished second and Margaret Wambui of Kenya took bronze. Semenya is believed to have a condition called hyperandrogenism.

The U.S. women beat Spain 101-72 in basketball to claim gold and their sixth straight Olympic title. It was also the 49th consecutive win for the powerful Americans who won in Rio by an average of nearly 40 points.

Serbia’s defeated France 70-63 to in the bronze medal game in the tournament. Jelena Milovanovic scored 18 to help the Serbs win a medal in its first try in the event.

And the International Olympic Committee revoked the silver medal won by Evgeniia Kolodko at the 2012 London Games in the shot put after a retest of her sample was positive for banned substances.

Sunday will witness the men’s basketball final between USA and Serbia before a late closing ceremony to bid farewell to the Games for four years until Tokyo 2020.

A total of 2,102 medals in 28 sports will be awarded during the 2016 Rio Games.

Here is a look at the top-5 medal tally as of Aug. 21 at 04:00 GMT.

RankingCountryGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1USA433736116
2GREAT BRITAIN27221766
3CHINA26182670
4RUSSIA17171953
5GERMANY17101441

Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.