Crismanich breaks Argentina gold drought

Sebastian Crismanich struck the only point 22 seconds from the end of the final round Friday to claim the men's under-80kg Olympic taekwondo title Friday, Argentina's first gold medal of the Games. The seventh seed snatched a tight final against fifth seed Nicolas Garcia 1-0, in the third and last round, to deny Spain a second gold of the taekwondo competition. Lutalo Muhammad partly vindicated Great Britain's decision not to select world number one Aaron Cook as he beat Arman Yeremyan of Armenia 9-3 for the first bronze medal. Italy's Mauro Sarmiento, the silver medallist four years ago, took the second bronze, beating Nesar Ahmad Bahawi of Afghanistan 4-0. The final was as tight as it was a surprise affair. Crismanich and Garcia largely negated each other until the Argentine struck with a straight kick to the midriff right at the death. That they got to the final was in part helped by a couple of curious team selections. Britain had overlooked Cook, who beat Muhammad's quarter-final conqueror Garcia last year, while Iran left out world champion Farzad Abdollahi. In truth, both Britain and Iran picked champions in their places in under-87 world champion Yousef Karami, and European under-87kg champion Muhammad. And while Karami failed to perform, beaten by Garcia in the first round and then again by Muhammad in the repechage, the Briton did at least deliver a medal. And 21-year-old brushed off his selection controversy after claiming his medal. "I'm just very proud I won a bronze medal for Team GB and I'm not thinking of anything else," he said. Top seed Ramin Azizov of Azerbaijan went out to Sarmiento in the quarter-finals and second seed Issam Chernoubi lost in the first round to Bahawi.