LONDON — Jake Varner defeated Valerie Andriitsev of Ukraine 1-0, 1-0 to win the men’s 96-kilogram (211 pounds) freestyle — the final individual gold medal won by the United States on the final day of the London Olympics.
Varner, who won four straight matches to take gold, fell to his knees once the clock ticked to zero. He soon found Cael Sanderson, a gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics who helped coach him to the title, and thanked him with a a leaping bear hug.
Varner’s gold, along with that won by the men’s basketball team yesterday, gave the U.S. a total of 46 golds, their most ever at a “road” Olympics. The U.S. — winners of 104 medals overall in London, easily the most of any country — won 45 golds at Paris in 1924 and at Mexico City in 1968. The U.S. won 83 golds (174 overall) at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, boycotted by most of the Soviet bloc countries, and 78 golds (a whopping 239 overall) in 1904 at St. Louis, when U.S. athletes won roughly seven out of every eight medals.
Coupled with Jordan Burroughs’ win in the 74 kilograms Friday night, Varner’s win gave the American team multiple Olympic gold medalists in men’s wrestling for the first time since 1996.
Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan also won wrestling gold yesterday in men’s 66-kilogram freestyle, beating Sushil Kumar of India to give the Japanese their first Olympic title in the sport in 24 years.
* Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda turned the last mile into a victory lap as he easily captured the marathon, along with the first medal for his country at these Games.
Kiprotich finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 1 second, holding off the Kenyan duo of Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang. Kirui finished 26 seconds behind Kiprotich, while Kipsang, the leader much of the race, faded late but held on for bronze just ahead of American Meb Keflezighi.
Kiprotich had such a big lead near the finish that he grabbed a flag from the stands and wore it on his way to the finish.
* In super heavyweight boxing, north Londoner Anthony Joshua roared back to win a tiebreaker over Italy’s Roberto Cammarelle, the defending champion, grabbing Britain’s third boxing gold medal. His medal ceremony was delayed about 15 minutes while Italy protested the result, but its complaints were swiftly rejected.
The five-fight finale also featured gold-medal victories for perhaps the three most impressive boxers in London: Ukrainian lightweight Vasyl Lomachenko, flyweight Robeisy Ramirez of Cuba, and welterweight Serik Sapiyev of Kazakhstan, who was named the tournament’s best boxer. Russian light heavyweight Egor Mekhontsev also claimed his nation’s only gold medal in these Olympics.
***Second-ranked Russia dropped the first two sets of the men’s volley ball final and faced two match points before putting together an impressive comeback in a 19-25, 20-25, 29-27, 25-22, 15-9 victory over Brazil, paced by 7-foot-2 middle blocker Dmitriy Muserskiy’s 31 points.
The Russians thought they had won it on Muserskiy’s kill in the fifth set and began to celebrate, but the officials awarded the point to Brazil. After regrouping, Muserskiy came right back to spike match point.
It was Russia’s fourth gold medal in the event, most of any nation, but first since 1980.
***The Russians won their fourth straight Olympic gold medal in the rhythmic gymnastics group event, easily beating Belarus. With Evgeniya Kanaeva winning the individual all-around Saturday, Russia has now won both rhythmic titles at every Olympics since the 2000 Sydney Games.
***Croatia won its first Olympic gold medal in men’s water polo, getting two second-half goals from both Miho Boskovic and Maro Jokovic to pull away from Italy for an 8-6 win. … France won its second consecutive Olympic gold medal in men’s handball with a 22-21 win over Sweden. Niclas Ekberg of Sweden scored on a penalty to make it 21-20 with one minute to go, but France held on for the win. … Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania used a strong running performance in the final event to win Olympic gold in the women’s modern pentathlon. … World champion Jaroslav Kulhavy of the Czech Republic won a two-man sprint to take the gold medal in the mountain bike race.