TOKYO, Japan — A wrestler with metro Atlanta ties made his way to the gold medal match of his weight class early Wednesday, continuing a strong run for Peach State athletes at the Tokyo Olympics.
David Taylor, wrestling in the 86kg freestyle class, put in a dominating run to reach the final.
He first beat Ali Shabanau of Belarus in the last 16 round, 11-0 in what's known as a victory by technical superiority - which is when a freestyle match is stopped when one wrestler gains a 10-point lead and achieves a technical fall.
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A technical fall is considered the points equivalent to a fall - when one wrestler pins the other and wins a match. In Olympic wrestling, points are achieved via the execution of moves such as holds and takedowns.
Taylor recorded another victory by technical superiority, 12-2 in the quarterfinals against Myles Amine of San Marino.
The 30-year-old, who spent part of his childhood in Roswell and trained with the U.S. wrestling team in Alpharetta ahead of the Tokyo Games, then pulled off a victory by technical superiority again in the semifinal match.
To reach the gold medal match, Taylor dusted off India's Deepak Punia 10-0.
That gold medal match will take place tomorrow in the middle of a session that begins at 5:15 a.m. ET.
Taylor will square off with Iran's Hassan Yazdani, who won his matches 11-2 (round of 16), 12-1 (quarterfinals) and 7-1 (semifinals) to reach the gold medal match.
Yazdani, 26, presents a formidable challenge for Taylor - the Iranian was the 2016 gold medal winner in the 74kg weight class in Rio, and the 2017 and 2019 world championships gold medalist in the 86kg weight class.
Taylor, however, was the 2018 world champion - and in that run he defeated Yazdani 11-6 in the round of 32.