Athens, Aug 29, IRNA -- Iran's Alireza Heidari here on Sunday won the bronze medal in the Olympic 96kg freestyle wrestling bout by beating Daniel Cormier from the US 3-2 in overtime.

photo: ISNA

Heidari who was behind 2-0 upto the seventh minutes into the match after losing two controversial points to Cormier, succeeded in overturning the result 3-2 in the end.

The multiple world medalist Heidari had earlier in the day lost to Magomed Ibragimov from Uzbekistan in a controversial semifinal match where the referee awarded three unfair points to help the Uzbek outpoint Iran's gold-medal hopeful by a final score of 6-4.

Heidari on Saturday brought hope to Iran camp by winning the undisputed world's freestyle wrestling champion Eldar Kurtanidze from Georgia 3-2 in overtime of an opening thriller.

Kurtanidze had defeated Heidari at 2000 Sydney Olympics games, winning the bronze medal. He had also beat Heidari in two world finals in 2002 and 2003 in Tehran and New York.

... Payvand News - 8/29/04 ... --