 Cejudo lives American dream
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-20 08:34
Henry Cejudo, a son of immigrants from Mexico, took gold yesterday in the 55kg freestyle wrestling final. The 21-year-old defeated Asian champion Tomohiro Matsunaga, crushing Japan's hopes of its first Olympic men's wrestling gold medal in two decades. Cejudo, the sixth of seven children, said his victory embodied what can be achieved by those emigrating to the United States.
"I'm living the American Dream. The US has given me a lot of opportunities," he said. Only 31st at last year's world championships, Cejudo set his course to the final when he stunned Bulgarian Radoslav Velikov, the 2006 world champion, in the last 16 round. Yesterday he edged the first period and then scored a three-point takedown to sweep Matsunaga aside. The Japanese wrestler, who had secured the scalp of Russian Besik Kudukhov in the semifinal, never looked in the match. He was desperately disappointed, however, that he couldn't repeat the success of Mitsuru Sato in the freestyle 55kg at the 1988 Seoul Games. He also failed to match the performance of Japan's women wrestlers who have have collected two gold, one silver and one bronze in Beijing, repeating their success at Athens. Cejudo said he had no specific strategy in the match. "I just kept calm and tried to let the other guy score points in the second period," he said. Russia's world champion Mavlet Batirov won his second straight Olympic title by beating Ukraine's Vasyl Fedoryshyn in the 60kg final. Batirov, 24, the 55kg champion in Athens four years ago, narrowly outpointed the three-time European champion in each of the two rounds. AFP
(China Daily 08/20/2008 page13) |
