Historical triumph: Khramtsov became the first Russian taekwondo athlete to become an Olympic champion

The Russian national taekwondo team was on the rise at the Tokyo Olympics.

Mikhail Artamonov started with a bronze medal in the weight category up to 58 kg, and the next day Tatyana Minina became a silver medalist in the weight category up to 57 kg.

It was reasonable to expect the next step from Maxim Khramtsov, who competes among athletes up to 80 kg, to the highest degree of the podium.

Moreover, for a 23-year-old native of Nizhnevartovsk, this was a completely achievable goal. In 2017, he already made history, becoming the first Russian world champion among men, after which he repeatedly won the Grand Prix stages, and also took the European Championship this year. In Tokyo, Khramtsov received the first seeding number, which allowed him to avoid fights with his main rivals until the final - the champion of Rio Sheik Sallah Cisse from Ivory Coast and two-time world championship winner Milad Baigi from Azerbaijan.

In the first fight, Khramtsov met with Faisal Savadogo, representing Burkina Faso.

This fight was very different from all others at the Olympics.

In the first two-minute round, the rivals could not make effective actions in any way, although Khramtsov had a lot of attempts to break through to the body.

He was able to earn only one point for the gamjom - a violation by the African.

Only after the break did the Russian manage to get Sawadogo and hit him in the side.

In the third round, the first blow from the African followed, but Khramtsov immediately noted the same to him.

After that, the rivals finally opened up, and the Russian even managed to get to the opponent's head.

In the end he was a little led, and the judge awarded Sawadogo points for gamjoms twice, but the victory still went to the Russian taekwondo fighter.

If Khramtsov faced the African for the first time, then the next opponent was well known to him.

They have fought with Croat Toni Canaet eight times already, and the Russian has always been the winner, including in two tournaments immediately before the Olympics.

Khramtsov again took time to swing, but still in the first round, he struck a difficult blow to the head.

In the next two minutes, Kanayet tried to recoup, but received a counterattack in the helmet, after which the Russian could no longer be stopped.

He pounced on his opponent so much that with one of his punches to the body he even pushed him out of the dodyang, and this brought one extra point.

Khramtsov did not stop, and the judges had to end the fight before the end of the round - Kanet never scored a single point, managing only to break the dobok's sleeve.

For reaching the final, Khramtsov argued with the Egyptian Seif Eissa, to whom he also had not lost before in the course of his career. Moreover, the Russian taekwondo fighter did not even allow him to score more than seven points in a fight. The fifth meeting between them turned out to be the most unfortunate for Eissa. After a moment's lull, the African decided to punch, but this only provoked an attack in the head. Subsequently, Khramtsov hit him in the helmet two more times, while the Egyptian athlete did not dare to even get close to the distance to strike. The fight ended with a score of 13: 1 - on the way to the final Khramtsov gave his opponents only seven points.

Even before the semifinal bout, it became known that both main contenders for gold would not be able to count on him.

Cisse lost to Moroccan Ashraf Makhbubi in the first round, and Beigi could not do anything with the representative of Uzbekistan Nikita Rafalovich.

At the same time, neither the one nor the other offender of the favorites became a rival of Khramtsov - both of them were alternately defeated by the Jordanian Saleh Al-Sharabati.

Russian taekwondo fighters have a special relationship with his compatriots.

Five years ago, Aleksey Denisenko fought for Olympic gold with Jordanian Ahmad Abugaush and was defeated.

Khramtsov had a great chance to take revenge, and he knew very well how to do it, since he had already defeated Al-Sharabati in 2018.

As in previous fights, the Russian did not rush into battle. Still, in the middle of the period, he struck the body and earned the first two points. Khramtsov immediately tried to repeat his maneuver, but this blow turned out to be fraudulent and came to mind. In the second segment, there were no attacking actions, while the gap in the score still increased to six points due to the opponent's going out of the mat.

Al-Sharabati did not calmly wait for the end of the fight and in the third period caught Khramtsov on a mistake.

The Jordanian delivered a roundhouse kick to the head, which earned the maximum five points.

The Russian taekwondo fighter did not allow to seize the initiative, interrupting the offensive with a blow of his fist, and began to regain the lost advantage.

Two headshots came in handy.

Al-Sharabati no longer had time to recoup, and Khramtsov became the first Olympic champion from Russia in taekwondo.

At the same time, OCD recalled that in May he had a broken arm, and in the first fight in Tokyo, the athlete had a relapse - "in principle, it was impossible to touch the hand."

Khramtsov's victory became the third for the national team at the Tokyo Olympics and made it possible to finish the next day in fourth place in the standings.