The men's freestyle bantamweight competition at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo took place from 11 to 14 October at the Komazawa Gymnasium. Nations were limited to one competitor. Bantamweight was the second-lightest category, including wrestlers weighing .
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 adjusted at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Each bout awarded 4 points. If the victory was by fall, the winner received 0 and the loser 4. If the victory was by decision, the winner received 1 and the loser 3. If the bout was tied, each wrestler received 2 points. A wrestler who accumulated 6 or more points was eliminated. Rounds continued until there were 3 or fewer uneliminated wrestlers. If only 1 wrestler remained, he received the gold medal. If 2 wrestlers remained, point totals were ignored and they faced each other for gold and silver (if they had already wrestled each other, that result was used). If 3 wrestlers remained, point totals were ignored and a round-robin was held among those 3 to determine medals (with previous head-to-head results, if any, counting for this round-robin).
Results
Round 1
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation János Varga Fall Tortillano Tumasis Choi Yeong-gil Fall Kevin McGrath Muhammad Siraj-Din Decision Walter Pilling Yojiro Uetake Fall Karl Dodrimont Hüseyin Akbaş Decision Mohammad Daoud Anwary Abdullah Khodabandeh Tie Mladen Georgiev Bishambar Singh Fall Rubén Leibovich David Auble Decision Bazaryn Sükhbaatar Koji Hirabayashi Decision Pekka Alanen Aydin Ibrahimov Decision Moises López
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation R1 1 Bishambar Singh 0 1 Choi Yeong-gil 0 1 0 1 0 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 10 2 10 2 12 3 12 3 12 3 12 3 12 3 17 4 17 4 17 4 17 4
Round 2
Seven wrestlers had their second loss in as many rounds and were eliminated, leaving 13 to advance. Varga, Choi, and Uetake each had 0 points. There were 2 wrestlers at each other possible point total (1 point through 5 points) remaining. Hirabayashi, however, withdrew after this round.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation János Varga Fall Kevin McGrath Choi Yeong-gil Fall Tortillano Tumasis Yojiro Uetake Fall Walter Pilling David Auble Fall Rubén Leibovich Muhammad Siraj-Din Decision Karl Dodrimont Aydin Ibrahimov Decision Koji Hirabayashi Abdullah Khodabandeh Decision Mohammad Daoud Anwary Hüseyin Akbaş Tie Mladen Georgiev Pekka Alanen Tie Moises López Bishambar Singh Decision Bazaryn Sükhbaatar
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation R1 R2 Total 1 Choi Yeong-gil 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 1 0 1 4 Bishambar Singh 0 1 1 6 1 1 2 6 1 1 2 8 1 2 3 8 2 1 3 10 2 2 4 11 3 2 5 11 3 2 5 13 1 3 4* 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 16 4 3 7 16 3 4 7 18 4 4 8 18 4 4 8 18 4 4 8
Round 3
Four wrestlers were eliminated in this round, with Siraj-Din also withdrawing to leave only 7 men advancing. All three wrestlers who started the round with 0 points picked up at least 1; Choi and Uetake shared the lead with just 1 point. Three wrestlers had 2 points.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Choi Yeong-gil Decision János Varga Yojiro Uetake Decision Muhammad Siraj-Din Hüseyin Akbaş Decision Abdullah Khodabandeh David Auble Decision Mladen Georgiev Bishambar Singh Decision Moises López Aydin Ibrahimov Fall Pekka Alanen
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation R1 R2 R3 Total 1 Choi Yeong-gil 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 3 1 0 1 2 3 Bishambar Singh 0 1 1 2 3 1 1 0 2 6 0 0 3 3 7 1 2 1 4 8 1 1 3 5* 9 2 1 3 6 10 2 2 3 7 11 3 2 3 8 12 3 2 4 9
Round 4
Varga, who had not had any points after round 2, was the only man eliminated in round 4 after two straight losses. The leaders coming into the round, Uetake and Choi, faced each other with neither in danger of elimination; Uetake won to stay in the lead. He was now joined by Ibrahimov at 2 points, after the latter wrestler had a bye.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Yojiro Uetake Decision Choi Yeong-gil Hüseyin Akbaş Fall János Varga David Auble Decision Bishambar Singh Aydin Ibrahimov Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation R1 R2 R3 R4 Total 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 1 2 3 1 0 1 1 3 4 1 2 1 0 4 4 Choi Yeong-gil 0 0 1 3 4 6 Bishambar Singh 0 1 1 3 5 7 0 0 3 4 7
Round 5
The three losers were all eliminated; the three winners advanced to a final round-robin.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Aydin Ibrahimov Decision Choi Yeong-gil Yojiro Uetake Decision David Auble Hüseyin Akbaş Decision Bishambar Singh
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total 1 1 1 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 1 1 1 3 3 1 2 1 0 1 5 4 1 0 1 1 3 6 5 Choi Yeong-gil 0 0 1 3 3 7 6 Bishambar Singh 0 1 1 3 3 8
Final round
None of the three medalists had faced another yet, so the final round was a full round-robin. In the first bout, Uetake defeated Ibrahimov. In the second, Akbaş also defeated Ibrahimov, giving the latter wrestler the bronze wrestler and setting up a gold medal bout between Uetake and Akbaş. Uetake won to claim Japan's first gold medal in the weight class since 1952.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Yojiro Uetake Decision Aydin Ibrahimov Hüseyin Akbaş Decision Aydin Ibrahimov Yojiro Uetake Decision Hüseyin Akbaş
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Points 2 4 6
References
General