USA’s Clarissa Chun rebounds for wrestling bronze

LONDON — The U.S. picked up a surprise bronze medal in the 105.5-pound class of women’s freestyle wrestling Wednesday. Clarissa Chun, 30, lost her second-round match to Mariya Stadnyk of Azerbaijan. But because Stadnyk made the gold-medal match, Chun was allowed back in the tournament through the repechage round.

It was there that she beat Irini Merleni of Ukraine to win one of two bronze medals. In the 2008 Beijing Games, Merleni pinned Chun to win the bronze medal. Merleni was the gold medalist in 2004.

The gold was won by Hitomi Obara of Japan, when she beat Stadnyk in the final match. Carol Huynh of Canada won the other bronze.

In the women’s 138-pound class, Kaori Icho of Japan won her third straight Olympic gold. She beat Jing Ruixue of China in the finals. The bronzes were awarded to Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia and Lubov Volosova of Russia.

Elena Pirozhkova of the U.S. lost her opening match to Anastasija Grigorjeva of Latvia.

Canoe: Germany lost the women’s 500-meter kayak four final for the first time in 20 years. It had to settle for a silver as Hungary pulled the upset. The bronze went to Belarus. Eirik Veras Larsen of Norway won the 1,000-meter men’s kayak single followed by Adam van Koeverden of Canada and Max Hoff of Germany. In the men’s 1,000-meter canoe single, it was Sebastian Brendel of Germany picking up the gold while David Cal Figueroa of Spain got the silver and Mark Oldershaw of Canada the bronze. The men’s 1,000-meter kayak double was won by Hungary followed by Portugal and Germany.

Cycling: Connor Fields of the U.S. was the fourth-fastest qualifier in men’s BMX seeding run. Teammates Nic Long (seventh) and David Herman (15th) also qualified. On the women’s side, Alise Post was eighth fastest; Brooke Crain did not finish her run. Everyone moves to the next round.

Diving: The U.S. qualified two divers into the semifinals of the women’s 10-meter platform. Katie Bell and Brittany Viola finished ninth and 14th to reach the next round. The field was cut from 26 to 18. The leader was Chen Ruolin of China.

Equestrian: Steve Guerdat of Switzerland won the gold in the individual show jumping competition. Gerco Schroder of the Netherlands got the silver and Cian O’Connor of Ireland was awarded the bronze. Rich Fellers, the only U.S. rider to make the finals, finished eighth.

Sailing: Bad times for U.S. sailing. For the first time since 1936 the U.S. will not earn a medal in any of the 10 classes. The last hope was the crew of Anna Tunnicliffe, Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi in match racing. They made it to the quarterfinal round but were eliminated by Finland, 3-1. Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan advanced to the women’s 470 medal race by finishing the 10 races in ninth place but they can’t get enough points to reach the podium. Erik Storck and Trevor Moore finished in 15th place in the men’s 49er class. The gold was won by Australia, with New Zealand getting the silver and Denmark the bronze.

Table tennis: China completed its sweep of all four titles when the men won the gold with a 3-0 victory over South Korea. China has won 24 of 28 gold medals since the sport was introduced in 1998. Germany beat Hong Kong to win the bronze.

Taekwondo: Wu Jingyu of China had little trouble with the competition, winning the women’s 108-pound class. Three of her earlier matches were stopped when she put up a 12-point lead, where taekwondo invokes a mercy rule. Brigitte Yague of Spain took the silver; Chanatip Sonkham of Thailand and Lucija Zaninovic of Croatia got the bronzes. In the men’s 128-pound class, Joel Gonzalez of Spain beat Lee Dae-hoon of South Korea for the gold. The bronzes were awarded to Alexey Denisenko of Russia and Oscar Munoz Oviedo of Colombia.

john.cherwa@latimes.com