Since 2012, Polish wrestlers have always finished the Olympic Games with one bronze medal to their name. Damian Janikowski won it in London, Monika Michalik repeated the success in Rio de Janeiro, and her brother Tadeusz in Tokyo. The streak may still continue in Paris. Robert Baran advanced to the fight for third place through the repechages. Zbigniew Baranowski also counted on the same.
The Pole was already leading 2:0 against the medal favorite. A big twist at the Paris Olympics
The 33-year-old, competing in freestyle, confidently defeated the Moldovan Radu Lefter 8:2 in the 1/8 finals. The Pole was surprised at the very beginning of the match and his opponent carried out an action for two points. Later, however, our player controlled the situation. He defended brilliantly, and added four actions for two points each, and confidently advanced to the quarterfinals.
There, however, a very difficult task awaited him. He came up against the excellent representative of Azerbaijan, Magomedczan Magomedov – a finalist of last year's world championships in Belgrade. Baranowski entered the mat without too much respect. In the first round, he even had a slight advantage. Finally, the referee ordered his opponent to carry out a point action for 30 seconds for his passivity. He failed to do so and the Pole received a point. In the end, the Azer tried to get into the Pole's legs, but he defended himself brilliantly and went into the break with the lead.
Zbigniew Baranowski waited until the end. Unfortunately. He lost hope for a medal
Right after the start of the second round, Magomedov moved very aggressively and wanted to push the Pole out of the mat. However, the Pole was very conscious and threw his opponent out of the circle, for which he received another point. Unfortunately, he was admonished for passivity shortly afterwards and despite his great efforts, he did not perform a point action for half a minute, although he was already holding his opponent by the leg. Not only did the Pole receive a point, but he also countered, performed a cartwheel and threw the Pole out of the circle, thanks to which he was already leading 5:2.
Baranowski tried to turn the tide of the match. He fought very ambitiously and with great energy looked for chances to knock his opponent down. It ended with him once again being caught in a counterattack. Magomedov scored another two points, won 7:2 and advanced to the semi-finals. Despite this, the Pole still had a chance for a medal. However, he had to count on the Azeri defeating the Georgian Givi Matcharashvili and entering the finals. In that case, Baranowski would fight in the Sunday repechage, and later perhaps in the duel for bronze. Unfortunately, Magomedov lost clearly 5:0, which means that the Pole will not make it to the Olympic mat in Paris.