Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle welterweight


The men's freestyle welterweight competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne took place from 28 November to 1 December at the Royal Exhibition Building. Nations were limited to one competitor.

Competition format

This freestyle wrestling competition continued to use the "bad points" elimination system introduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics for Greco-Roman and at the 1932 Summer Olympics for freestyle wrestling, as modified in 1952. Each round featured all wrestlers pairing off and wrestling one bout. The loser received 3 points. The winner received 1 point if the win was by decision and 0 points if the win was by fall. At the end of each round, any wrestler with at least 5 points was eliminated. This elimination continued until the medal rounds, which began when 3 wrestlers remained. These 3 wrestlers each faced each other in a round-robin medal round ; record within the medal round determined medals, with bad points breaking ties.

Results

Round 1

Ochman and Rantanen withdrew after their bouts.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Mitko PetkovFallBruno Ochman
Nabi SorouriFallDevi Singh
Mitsuo IkedaDecision, 3–0Ernie Fischer
İbrahim ZenginFallErnst Wandaller
Per BerlinDecision, 3–0Noel Granger
Vakhtang BalavadzeDecision, 3–0Veikko Rantanen
Alfred TischendorfDecision, 3–0Muhammad Latif
Coenraad de VilliersByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
1000
1000
1000
5011
5011
5011
5011
9033
9033
9033
9033
9033
14033*
14033*

Round 2

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Coenraad de VilliersDecision, 3–0Mitko Petkov
Ernie FischerDecision, 3–0Nabi Sorouri
Mitsuo IkedaFallDevi Singh
İbrahim ZenginFallNoel Granger
Per BerlinFallErnst Wandaller
Vakhtang BalavadzeFallAlfred Tischendorf
Muhammad LatifByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
2101
2101
2011
2101
6303
6033
6033
9314
9134
11336
11336
11336

Round 3

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Coenraad de VilliersDecision, 3–0Muhammad Latif
Nabi SorouriDecision, 3–0Mitko Petkov
İbrahim ZenginDecision, 3–0Ernie Fischer
Mitsuo IkedaDecision, 3–0Vakhtang Balavadze
Per BerlinDecision, 3–0Alfred Tischendorf

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1011
2112
2112
2112
5134
5314
7336
7336
9437
9437

Round 4

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Nabi SorouriDecision, 3–0Coenraad de Villiers
Mitsuo IkedaDecision, 3–0İbrahim Zengin
Vakhtang BalavadzeFallPer Berlin

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1213
2404
2134
4235
4235
4415

Medal rounds

Ikeda's victories over Balavadze in round 3 and Zengin in round 4 counted for the medal rounds, giving the Japanese wrestler the gold medal with a 2–0 record against the other medalists. Zengin defeated Balavadze in a de facto silver medal match.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
İbrahim ZenginFallVakhtang Balavadze

; Points
RankWrestlerNationWinsLosses
20
11
02