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.[1]Bantamweight was the second-lightest category, including wrestlers weighing 52 to 57 kilograms (114.6 to 125.7 lb).[2]
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).[1][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.
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.
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.
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.
