The men's freestyle welterweight competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London took place from 29 July to 31 July at the Empress Hall, Earls Court Exhibition Centre. Nations were limited to one competitor. Welterweight was the fourth-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing .
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, with the slight modification introduced in 1936. Each round featured all wrestlers pairing off and wrestling one bout (with one wrestler having a buy, if there were an odd number). The loser received 3 points if the loss was by fall or unanimous decision and 2 points if the decision was 2-1 (this was the modification from prior years, where all losses were 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.
Results
Round 1
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Kálmán Sóvári Decision, 3–0 Aleksanteri Keisala Dick Garrard Decision, 3–0 Willy Angst Yaşar Doğu Fall Anant Bhargava Abbas Zandi Fall Eduardo Estrada Jean-Baptiste Leclerc Decision, 3–0 Adel Ibrahim Moustafa Hwang Byeong-gwan Decision, 3–0 Louis Culot Leland Merrill Decision, 3–0 Harry Peace Frans Westergren Decision, 2–1 Don Irvine
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Yaşar Doğu 0 0 0 1 Abbas Zandi 0 0 0 3 Dick Garrard 0 1 1 3 Hwang Byeong-gwan 0 1 1 3 Jean-Baptiste Leclerc 0 1 1 3 Leland Merrill 0 1 1 3 Kálmán Sóvári 0 1 1 3 Frans Westergren 0 1 1 9 Don Irvine 0 2 2 10 Willy Angst 0 3 3 10 Anant Bhargava 0 3 3 10 Louis Culot 0 3 3 10 Eduardo Estrada 0 3 3 10 Aleksanteri Keisala 0 3 3 10 Adel Ibrahim Moustafa 0 3 3 10 Harry Peace 0 3 3
Round 2
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Dick Garrard Decision, 2–1 Kálmán Sóvári Willy Angst Decision, 3–0 Aleksanteri Keisala Anant Bhargava Decision, 2–1 Eduardo Estrada Yaşar Doğu Fall Abbas Zandi Adel Ibrahim Moustafa Decision, 2–1 Hwang Byeong-gwan Jean-Baptiste Leclerc Decision, 3–0 Louis Culot Leland Merrill Decision, 3–0 Frans Westergren Harry Peace Fall Don Irvine
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Yaşar Doğu 0 0 0 2 Dick Garrard 1 1 2 2 Jean-Baptiste Leclerc 1 1 2 2 Leland Merrill 1 1 2 5 Hwang Byeong-gwan 1 2 3 5 Harry Peace 3 0 3 5 Kálmán Sóvári 1 2 3 5 Abbas Zandi 0 3 3 9 Willy Angst 3 1 4 9 Anant Bhargava 3 1 4 9 Adel Ibrahim Moustafa 3 1 4 9 Frans Westergren 1 3 4 13 Eduardo Estrada 3 2 5 13 Don Irvine 2 3 5 15 Louis Culot 3 3 6 15 Aleksanteri Keisala 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Kálmán Sóvári Decision, 2–1 Willy Angst Dick Garrard Fall Anant Bhargava Yaşar Doğu Fall Adel Ibrahim Moustafa Frans Westergren Decision, 3–0 Harry Peace Jean-Baptiste Leclerc Decision, 3–0 Abbas Zandi Leland Merrill Decision, 3–0 Hwang Byeong-gwan
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Yaşar Doğu 0 0 0 2 Dick Garrard 2 0 2 3 Jean-Baptiste Leclerc 2 1 3 3 Leland Merrill 2 1 3 5 Kálmán Sóvári 3 1 4 6 Frans Westergren 4 1 5 7 Willy Angst 4 2 6 7 Hwang Byeong-gwan 3 3 6 7 Harry Peace 3 3 6 7 Abbas Zandi 3 3 6 11 Anant Bhargava 4 3 7 11 Adel Ibrahim Moustafa 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Dick Garrard Fall Jean-Baptiste Leclerc Yaşar Doğu Fall Kálmán Sóvári Leland Merrill Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Yaşar Doğu 0 0 0 2 Dick Garrard 2 0 2 3 Leland Merrill 3 0 3 4 Jean-Baptiste Leclerc 3 3 6 5 Kálmán Sóvári 4 3 7
Round 5
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Leland Merrill Decision, 2–1 Dick Garrard Yaşar Doğu Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Yaşar Doğu 0 0 0 2 Dick Garrard 2 2 4 2 Leland Merrill 3 1 4
Round 6
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Yaşar Doğu Decision, 3–0 Leland Merrill Dick Garrard Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Yaşar Doğu 0 1 1 2 Dick Garrard 4 0 4 Leland Merrill 4 3 7
Round 7
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Yaşar Doğu Fall Dick Garrard
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total Yaşar Doğu 1 0 1 Dick Garrard 4 3 7
References
General