China's Pang secures final berth in the women's freestyle 53kg

TOKYO - China's Pang Qianyu advanced into the final of the women's freestyle wrestling 53kg division at the Tokyo Olympic Games here on Thursday.

Pang could win China's first gold medal in women's wrestling since Beijing 2008, when Wang Jiao was crowned in the women's freestyle 72kg category.

Pang beat Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus in a thrilling semifinal as she scored with five seconds left to make a 2-2 VPO1 victory.

"I defeated her twice before, but today is a very tough match because she had a good defence strategy. It's very exciting to win in the last seconds," said Peng, who eliminated the American Jacarra Gwenisha Winchester in the quarterfinals.

Pang will face Japan's Mayu Mukaida in the final on Friday.

In other action, American David Morris Taylor III edged Iran's Hassan Yazdanicharati 4-3 in the men's freestyle 86kg final.

"The medal is heavier than I thought it was going to be. Hassan is a fearless competitor. I like to win 10-0, but getting it done in the last seconds feels pretty good too," said Taylor.

Taylor III is the only one who can beat Yazdanicharati since the Iranian won the men's freestyle 74kg at Rio 2016.

Artur Naifonov of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) took the bronze medal by defeating Uzbekistan's Javrail Shapiev while San Marino's Myles Nazem Amine won the other bronze.

In the women's freestyle 57kg final, Japan's Risako Kawai won her second Olympic title after a 5-0 convincing victory over Iryna Kurachkina from Belarus.

Risako's younger sister Yukako Kawai won gold in the women's freestyle 62kg category on Wednesday.

"Being defending champion is nice, but what makes me happiest is a joint gold medal with my sister. I saw that wonderful match (KAWAI Yusako's final) in front of me, I had no choice but to go for it," said Risako.

Helen Louise Maroulis of the US overwhelmed Mongolia's Khongorzul Boldsaikhan for the bronza while Evelina Georgieva Nikolova won a bronze medal for Bulgaria.

ROC's Zavur Uguev, 2018 and 2019 world champion, beat Kumar Ravi of India 7-4 to claim the title of the men's freestyle 57kg.

"The match was very difficult. During all these years, I've trained for and waited for this moment. I am still young. I will get prepared and train for the next Olympic Games," Uguev said.

The two bronze medals went to Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan and American Thomas Patrick Gilman.