Five gold medals were decided in men's Greco-Roman wrestling at the Youth Olympic Games on Monday, with Russian athletes bagging two of them.

In the men's 42kg category, Seung Ri of DPR Korea beat Faith Aslan of Turkey for gold while Oleksii Masyk of Ukraine took bronze. Ri beat Aslan 9-6 on technical superiority.

"The Turkish wrestler (Aslan) caused me the biggest trouble on the way to the finals. Nevertheless I am very pleased with my Youth Olympics medal," said bronze medallist Masyk. "I will no longer need to keep a special diet to compete in the 42kg and I will move on to a higher weight category."

In the 50kg event, Ilkhom Bakhromov of Uzbekistan won the gold medal. Jabbar Najafov of Azerbaijan took silver and Mohammadreza Aghaniachari of Iran took bronze. Najafov scored the first points and led the bout, but a challenge led to a two-point deduction for tripping and lost 6-5 on technical points.

"It was not an easy win for me as the wrester from Azerbaijan is very strong," said Bakhromov. "But my coaches prepared me for gold and I listened to them."

Arslan Zubairov of Russia defeated Zaven Mikaelyan of Armenia in the men's 58kg to take Youth Olympic gold and Karamat Abdevali of Iran took bronze.

Mikaelyan scored four points against world champion Zubairov, and led 4-1 after the first period but the Russian wrestler picked apart his competitor with a series of last minute take-downs and surged to a brilliant 14-4 win.

"No one wrestler at this level is weak," said Zubairov. "I lost a few points but I kept calm. I knew I would have the competitor play by my rules but I did not expect to score so much."

Islambek Dadov of Azerbaijan fashioned a 1-0 technical points win over Mason Manville of the United States to take the men's 69kg gold. Manville won silver and Yevgeniy Polivadov of Kazakhstan took bronze.

"I am very satisfied with the Olympic gold. I felt a strong support from the whole team who were cheering me up during the bout," said Dadov.

The men's 85kg was the final event of the evening and Mark Bemalian of Russia overwhelmed Kiril Milov of Bulgaria 9-6 to secure the win. Milov took silver and Ahmed Ahmed of Egypt took bronze.

"I have gained more experience since the European Championship where the Bulgarian wrestler (Milov) upped me," said Bemalyan. "I never lose confidence and I never pay attention to competition. I do my own thing."

"I have been wrestling since I was seven years old. My dad is a wrestler, so it runs in the family. For me wrestling is wisdom, strength and kindness. It is the sport that turns you into a real man." Endit

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