Fumita wins 60-kg Greco-Roman wrestling gold

Japan's Kenichiro Fumita won the men's Greco-Roman 60-kilogram wrestling gold medal at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, going one better than his silver in Tokyo three years ago.

Fumita defeated China's Cao Liguo 4-1 in the final at Champ-de-Mars Arena, after fellow Japanese Nao Kusaka advanced to the men's Greco-Roman 77-kg final.

In one of the women's 68-kg bronze medal matches, Nonoka Ozaki of Japan defeated Nigeria's Blessing Oborududu 3-0.

The 28-year-old Fumita, also a two-time world champion, scored two points by rolling Cao to go up 3-0 and stayed in the driver's seat from there.

"It was a long journey," Fumita said. "I struggled a lot to get here. Even if I won at the world championships, I didn't feel like I reached the top. Winning at the Olympics must be the top of everything."

Fumita came into the final on a high after beating reigning world champion Zholaman Sharshenbekov of Kyrgyzstan in the previous day's semifinal.

The win made him the first Japanese to claim an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling title since Atsuji Miyahara won the 52-kg division at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Asked what it was like competing in front of his family in the stands, Fumita said, "My daughter found me when I won the final. I haven't lost a match in front of her. That's been my extra motivation, so I'm glad I showed her my Olympic triumph."

Earlier on Tuesday, Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Yui Susaki suffered a shock first-round loss on points in the women's 50-kg event, 3-2 to India's Vinesh Vinesh.

Susaki, who did not concede a single point en route to the gold medal three years ago in Tokyo, saw her unbeaten streak against opponents from other countries broken at 94 matches.

The 25-year-old, who won the first of her four world championships in Paris, failed to find the destiny she was seeking against the 29-year-old Vinesh, a two-time Asian Games medalist.

Susaki had a 2-0 lead before Vinesh got a takedown in the dying seconds.

"By losing like this, I wasted all the support of so many people," Susaki said. "I kept training for the Paris Olympics without doing anything else. The loss tells me that I don't deserve to be an Olympic champion."

"I couldn't do what I wanted to do. I just don't know what went wrong."

Susaki's stated goal of winning four consecutive Olympic gold medals, to emulate Japan's Kaori Icho who did it between 2004 and 2016, was seemingly dashed by the loss.

Susaki was advanced to Wednesday's repechage round after Vinesh made it to the final, giving her a chance to fight for bronze.