In an impressive Olympic debut, 21-year-old J’den Cox will leave Rio with an Olympic bronze medal.
After going 2-1 in his preliminary-round matches, Cox ended up in the bronze medal match against Cuba’s Reineris Salas. With Cox leading 1-0, he was put on the shot clock for passivity late in the match. A scramble ensued on the mat, with the referees initially rewarding no scores to Cox. That gave a point to Salas to tie the match 1-1 and put Salas ahead on criteria.
The American side challenged the call, and upon review, it was determined that Cox should have been awarded a two-point score. That decision put Cox back in the lead with six seconds left, but Salas refused to come back to the center of the mat and resume the fight. As a result, he was disqualified from the bout, and Cox was awarded the victory.
In the gold medal match, Russia’s Abdulrashid Sadulaev defeated Turkey’s Selim Yasar 5-0 to win his first Olympic title. Sadulaev is the division’s two-time reigning world champion.
86kg quarterfinals
Sadulaev (RUS) wins 5-0 vs. Ceballos (VEN)
Sharifov (AZE) wins 7-0 vs. Baranowski (POL)
Yasar (TUR) wins 5-2 vs. Salas (CUB)
Cox (USA) wins 5-1 vs. Karimi (IRI)
86kg semifinals
Sadulaev (RUS) wins 8-1 vs. Sharifov (AZE)
Yasar (TUR) wins 2-1 vs. Cox (USA)
86kg repechage matches
Ceballos (VEN) wins 7-6 vs. Vereb (HUN)
Salas (CUB) wins 6-4 vs. Espinal (PUR)
86kg bronze medal matches
Sharifov (AZE) wins 5-1 vs. Ceballos (VEN)
Cox (USA) wins by DQ vs. Salas (CUB)
86kg gold medal match
Sadulaev (RUS) wins 5-0 vs. Yasar (TUR)