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. Welterweight was the fourth-heaviest 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 modified in 1952 (adding medal rounds and making all losses worth 3 points—from 1936 to 1948 losses by split decision only cost 2). Each round featured all wrestlers pairing off and wrestling one bout (with one wrestler having a bye if there were an odd number). 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 (with earlier results counting, if any had wrestled another before); record within the medal round determined medals, with bad points breaking ties.
Results
Round 1
Ochman and Rantanen withdrew after their bouts.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Mitko Petkov Fall Bruno Ochman Nabi Sorouri Fall Devi Singh Mitsuo Ikeda Decision, 3–0 Ernie Fischer İbrahim Zengin Fall Ernst Wandaller Per Berlin Decision, 3–0 Noel Granger Vakhtang Balavadze Decision, 3–0 Veikko Rantanen Alfred Tischendorf Decision, 3–0 Muhammad Latif Coenraad de Villiers Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 14 0 3 3* 14 0 3 3*
Round 2
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Coenraad de Villiers Decision, 3–0 Mitko Petkov Ernie Fischer Decision, 3–0 Nabi Sorouri Mitsuo Ikeda Fall Devi Singh İbrahim Zengin Fall Noel Granger Per Berlin Fall Ernst Wandaller Vakhtang Balavadze Fall Alfred Tischendorf Muhammad Latif Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 2 1 0 1 2 0 1 1 2 1 0 1 6 3 0 3 6 0 3 3 6 0 3 3 9 3 1 4 9 1 3 4 11 3 3 6 11 3 3 6 11 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Coenraad de Villiers Decision, 3–0 Muhammad Latif Nabi Sorouri Decision, 3–0 Mitko Petkov İbrahim Zengin Decision, 3–0 Ernie Fischer Mitsuo Ikeda Decision, 3–0 Vakhtang Balavadze Per Berlin Decision, 3–0 Alfred Tischendorf
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 5 1 3 4 5 3 1 4 7 3 3 6 7 3 3 6 9 4 3 7 9 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Nabi Sorouri Decision, 3–0 Coenraad de Villiers Mitsuo Ikeda Decision, 3–0 İbrahim Zengin Vakhtang Balavadze Fall Per Berlin
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 2 1 3 2 4 0 4 2 1 3 4 4 2 3 5 4 2 3 5 4 4 1 5
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
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation İbrahim Zengin Fall Vakhtang Balavadze
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses 2 0 1 1 0 2
References
General