BEIJING, Aug 20: Defending champion Buvaysa Saytiev of Russia won his third, and probably last, Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medal on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old six-time world champion, now with strands of grey hair, beat Sosian Tigiev of Uzbekistan in the men's 74kg final.

World champion Ramazan Sahin of Turkey meanwhile won the men's 66kg freestyle wrestling title to earn Turkey their first gold medal here.

“I represent a very strong team and people who would be of my age in four years' time would probably not get into a team of such a high quality,” said the soft-spoken champion, wrapped in the Russian flag.

The winner for the event in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 as well as the 2004 Athens Games, Saytiev had to defeat the current world champion, Mackhach Murtazaliev, to win a spot in the powerhouse Russian team here.

“If you ask me, frankly, no, I probably won't,” he said.

And in a dig at other athletes who swap nationalities for big money or to gain an Olympic slot, the Russian said: “I don't want to represent another country.”

The Russians now have two freestyle golds to add to three Greco-Roman titles here, with three other men's freestyle gold medals still on the table when the competition ends on Thursday.

Saytiev's underdog foe won the first period with a takedown, but the Russian veteran evened it up in the second before piling on the points in the third.

“Even though I fought, shall we say in a manner which was not of top quality, nonetheless my character and my training brought me victory,” Saytiev said.

Murad Gaidarov of Belarus and Kiril Terziev of Bulgaria both won bronze medals.

Saytiev had reached his third Olympic final earlier on Wednesday in spectacular fashion, pinning Terziev on to the mat in the first period to win by a fall.

Saytiev had failed to medal only once in four Olympic outings, finishing in ninth place at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

On Wednesday he became the first freestyle wrestler representing Russia to win three Olympic golds.

“Saytiev fell ill in 2006, and he had a bad time. So he lost in the 2006 world championship,” his coach Dmitry Mindiashvili said earlier.

“But now he has fully recovered from his illness and revealed his power.”

Meanwhile Sahin finally brought joy to the Turks by defeating Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine by points in a tightly contested 66kg final.

“This gold is for Turkey and the Turkish people,” the bearded, Russian-speaking winner said later.

“I lost to him [Stadnik] the last time we fought, but I felt quite relaxed and confident that I could win.”

It was the Turks' first victory at these Games, following the failure of their highly rated weightlifters.

Sahin scored first when he rolled over the Ukrainian, a financier in his day job, for two exposure points.

But with pole vaulting great Sergey Bubka rooting for his countryman from the stands, Stadnik fought back with two takedowns to draw level.

Sahin pushed Stadnik out and added a gut wrench to the Ukrainian's single takedown as the Turk won the second period, while they scored two points apiece in the third.

Stadnik said he was satisfied with the silver medal, which meant he outperformed his wrestler wife Mariya Stadnik, who won a women's freestyle bronze medal for Azerbaijan last weekend.

“It’s nice to realise that you compete against your own wife,” he joked.

Otar Tushishvili of Georgia and India’s Sushil Kumar both won bronze medals.—AFP