Germany's Marcel Ewald has revealed that he was delighted to win the silver medal in the men's 57kg freestyle wrestling at the European Games after initially being knocked out in the quarter-finals.
The 31-year-old was given a second chance in the competition after Belarus's Uladzislau Andreyeu and Georgia's Vladimer Khinchegashvili were both suspended from the semi-finals for fighting.
Ewald defeated Albania's Islam Islamaj to reach the gold-medal match, but could not overcome Russia's Viktor Lebedev in the final as he slipped to a 3-0 defeat.
He told reporters: "I can only say when two are fighting, the third one will laugh. This came totally unexpected and was a great chance."
On his defeat to Lebedev, he added: "He was two times a world champion and he is the number one athlete in Russia. I tried to keep the match open as long as possible and I hoped that maybe I could place a surprise attack.
"In the second half I lost control of the bout, but it is difficult to wrestle such a man. Near the end I thought I had scored a point, but it was not awarded. But at a score of 8-0 or 9-0 it did not really make a difference."
Germany have won 16 medals at the European Games in Baku.
Simon Sinclair
