World and Olympic champion Aleksey Mishin was quick off the mark Thursday as Russian wrestlers sought to dominate the Greco-Roman event at the Beijing Olympics.
Mishin earned needed only two rounds to dispose of Kazakh Andrey Samokhin as he advanced to the quarter-finals of the men's 84kg division.
The Russians, who rule the roost in the world of freestyle wrestling, are now seeking to win five of seven golds in the classical style, where holds are barred below the waist and legs cannot be used to bring the opponent down.
Mishin's side of the draw was made easier with the exit of American Brad Vering, who placed second to the Russian at last year's world championships.
Vering hurdled the qualification phase against Artuc Michalkiewicz of Poland but had little left when he returned to the mat less than an hour later and lost to Armenian Denis Forov in the last 16.
Former Russian world champion Khasan Baroev, the joint favourite in the 120kg class, is in the semi-finals after beating Iran's Masoud Hashem Zadeh and then Mindaugas Ezerskis of Lithuania.
Baroev is tipped to meet the Cuban world champion Mijail Lopez in the final later Thursday in a repeat of the 2006 world championship final that was won by the Russian.
Russia already have two Greco-Roman gold medals in the bag courtesy of Nazyr Mankiev (55kg) and Islam-Beka Albiev (60kg), while Steve Guenot has won the 66kg title for France and Manuchar Kvirkelia of Georgia took the 74kg gold.
The men and women's freestyle wrestling - Russia hold five of six men's world titles - follow after the conclusion of the remaining Greco-Roman events Thursday.
