Watch: Athlete wins gold, sportingly carries injured opponent off mat

Updated 26/06/2015 at 15:58 GMT

Stsiapan Papou: hard man and all-round nice guy.

Stsiapan Papou of Belarus (R) carries injured Amil Gasimov of Azerbaijan off the mat

Image credit: Reuters

The Belarus athlete took victory in the men’s 74kg category in sambo at the European Games in Baku, but it was his post-fight gesture that stole the attention.

An excruciating exchange unfolded at the end of the bout, with Papou and home favourite Amil Gasimov locked in a painful grapple.

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Papou eventually forced Gasimov to tap out, ending the fight, but only after he had inflicted serious damage to his opponent’s foot.

Gasimov struggled to hop out of the arena, with Papou winning back the partisan crowd by lifting the Azerbaijan athlete onto his shoulders and towards the medical bay.

The fine gesture occurs at 6:44 in the above clip, but scroll to 5:06 if you fancy watching the rather intense ending to the fight.