The dream of earning a medal at the 2012 London Olympics ended Wednesday for women's wrestler Elena Pirozhkova. The Greenfield, Mass. native lost to Latvia's Anastasija Grigorjeva, 3-1, in the round of 16 of the 63kg freestyle competition. The tournament crowned Japan's Icho Kaori as the gold medalist, China's Ruixue Jing as the silver-medalist, and gave Mongolia's Battsetseg Soronzonbold and Russia's Lubov Volosova each bronze medals.
Thanks to a bye in the round of 32, Pirozhkova, 25, advanced onto the round of 16. In her first match, Pirozhkova won the first period, 2-0, against Grigorjeva. However, the Latvian rebounded with victories in the second (5-0) and third periods (2-0) to win 7-2 in tech. points.
Grigorjeva advance to the quarterfinals but was quickly eliminated by Mongolia's Battsetseg Soronzonbold.
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