Olympic Wrestling 2016: Medal Winners, Scores and Results from Friday

Vladimer Khinchegashvili clinched gold for Georgia on Friday after he defeated Japan's Rei Higuchi in the final of the men's freestyle wrestling 57-kilogram weight class at the 2016 Rio Games. 

Higuchi led 3-2 heading into the final stages of the medal decider, but a last-ditch penalty for passive performance saw Khinchegashvili draw level and top the podium on criteria.

Lower down the 57-kg pecking order, Azerbaijan's Haji Aliyev and Iran's Hassan Sabzali Rahimi claimed spots on the podium after winning their bronze-medal finals.

Amin Mohammad Jamali/Getty Images

Later, Iran's Hassan Aliazam Yazdanicharati pulled off a courageous comeback to beat Russia's Aniuar Geduev in the men's freestyle 74-kg gold-medal final and win the top prize in his weight class.

The bronze medals in that category went to Jabrayil Hasanov of Azerbaijan and Turkey's Soner Demirtas, who defeated respective foes Bekzod Abdurakhmonov of Uzbekistan and Galymzhan Usserbayev of Kazakhstan.

Read on for a breakdown of Friday's wrestling final results, complete with a recap of the night's entertainment.

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's 57-kg	Vladimer Khinchegashvili (GEO)	Rei Higuchi (JPN)	Haji Aliyev (AZE) and Hassan Sabzali Rahimi (IRN)
Men's 74-kg	Hassan Aliazam Yazdanicharat (IRN)	Aniuar Geduev (RUS)	Jabrayil Hasanov (AZE) and Soner Demirtas (TUR)

Recap

Youth got the better of experience in the gold-medal final of the 74-kilogram division after a bruised and battered Geduev couldn't survive a late assault from Iranian youngster Yazdanicharati.

The Russian had to be heavily bandaged up due to a head injury in the second period and ultimately let a 6-0 lead slip to draw 6-6 and see Yazdanicharati win by comeback.

The Iranian won by virtue of being the last wrestler to score in the final, and World Wrestling confirmed his victory after he trailed by six points to nothing at one point:

In the bronze-medal finals, Hasanov defeated Uzbekistan's Abdurakhmonov 9-7 to make his way onto the podium, and a 6-0 demolition from Turkey's Demirtas saw him to a one-sided win over Usserbayev.

After finishing with a silver medal at London 2012, Khinchegashvili went one better with his win over Higuchi—a win that almost evaded his grasp.

Japanese outlet Kyodo News Sports described the close manner of Higuchi's defeat, as he was in control of the fixture until the dying minutes:

The loss came as a bitter blow for Higuchi, too, who was within inches of taking home the top prize on his Olympic debut at just 20 years of age.

Khinchegashvili's gold brought Georgia just its second gold of Rio 2016, while Rahimi and Aliyev added to Iran's and Azerbaijan's tallies, respectively, with their bronze medals.

Rahimi was particularly dominant in his 9-0 thrashing of Yowlys Bonne Rodriguez of Cuba, while Aliyev edged his bronze-medal clash against Bulgarian Vladimir Vladimirov Dubov 5-4.

Aliyev defeated his foe by fall despite making a substantial weight cut to make the 57-kg limit, coming away from the 2016 Olympics with a bronze medal to show for it.