Olympic semifinal defeat was Zholaman Sharshenbekov’s first in two years after 43 consecutive victories

Zholaman Sharshenbekov experienced his first in two years defeat in the semifinals of the men’s 60 kg Greco-Roman wrestling event in the Olympic Games in Paris.

He narrowly lost 3:4 in the semifinals to Japan’s Kenichiro Fumita, who eventually became an Olympic champion, while Sharshenbekov clinched a bronze medal. 

The last time, before this Olympics, Sharshenbekov lost a fight was on June 2, 2022, in the Bolat Turlykhanov Tournament in Kazakhstan, when in the quarterfinals he lost to Kerem Kamal from Turkey with the score of 3:9. 

After that in the Wladyslaw Pytlasinski Cup in Poland, Sharshenbekov claimed 3 consecutive victories and advanced to the finals, where he was supposed to face Kenichiro Fumita, but the fight did not happen because of Sharshenbekov’s injury. 

After that, Sharshenbekov had 10 competitions and all of them were won by him, including Asian Games, two World Wrestling Championships, two Asian Wrestling Championships, and the Islamic Solidarity Games. 

Zholaman Sharshenbekov had 43 victories before losing to Kenichiro Fumita in the Olympic semifinals on August 5.