Manuchar Kvirkelia, bottom, throws Chang Yongxiang to clinch gold

Tsirekidze claimed gold by defeating Amar Benikhlef of Algeria in the final of the men's 90-kg category, while earlier in the day Kvirkelia reigned supreme in the 74kg greco-roman wrestling.

World champion Tsirekidze won by a mere technicality in the end, with neither judoka able to score in a tense battle.

After a cagey few moments at the start of the bout, the referee penalised Benikhlef for passivity, the Algerian appearing marginally more reluctant to engage in battle than his opponent.

The one-point penalty turned out to be crucial in the end, with neither Benikhlef nor Tsirekidze able to score, despite a series of increasingly frantic exchanges as the clock wound down.

The Olympic title caps off a rich vein of form for 26-year-old Tsirekidze, who beat Athens champion Ilias Iliadis in the final of the world championships last year and came third in the European championships.

Benikhlef's surprise final appearance gave Algeria their first male Olympic medallist.

Egypt's Hesham Mesbah made light work of his bronze medal bout with Yves-Matthieu Dafreville of France, throwing the

Frenchman for ippon to win automatically.

Sergei Aschwanden of Switzerland mounted a sublime counter-attack to beat Russia's Ivan Pershin for the other bronze, twisting him around his waist for ippon.

Kvirkelia opens the account

Earlier, Kvirkelia won the country's first gold medal in a convincing fashion.

The bearded 29-year-old swarmed all over China's Chang Yongxiang, winning 3-0.

Chang, 24, won silver.

Yavor Yanakiev of Bulgaria and Christophe Guenot of France each won bronze medals.

In a hugely successful day for Georgia in Beijing, they also defeated Russia in the women's beach volleyball.

In a match in which the actual sport was overshadowed by the countries current regional conflict and the Georgians upset victory was met with a passionate response from the fans in the stadium.

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