Taymazov bags third wrestling Olympic gold in row

Taymazov edged Georgia's Davit Modzmanashvili in the final, 2-0 (1-0, 1-0), with points countering his opponent's clinch and a force out.

On how he motivated himself to compete at the Olympic Games at the age of 33, Taymazov said, "I lived for it. I think about it all the time. I've got a silver and two gold medals and I wanted to get the third gold. There was also a time pressure, because I am 33. But it was my time."

With his silver medal from the Sydney Olympic Games, Taymazov, grabbed his third successive Olympic gold to join Greco-Roman great Russian wrestler Alexander Kareline as the only other wrestler who won in either style in Olympics, Xinhua reports.

"He (Kareline) is a great athlete. I'm glad I have equalled his medal total but he has won more world championships so I must do more over the next two seasons."

"When I was young, I saw pictures of Kareline and I wanted to be like him and now I make it," said Taymazov.

China's Liang Lei didn't fight due to injury. "He got injured in the training before coming to London. We couldn't replace him as it happened after the IOC delegation list was fixed," said Chinese wrestling team leader Ma Wenguang.

In other categories, two Azerbaijian wrestlers Toghrul Asagarov and Sharif Sharifov claimed 60kg and 84kg gold medal respectively.