The Norwegian defeated Aleksanyan in the quarter-finals and moved into the gold medal contest at the Spens Sport Hall by overcoming Dimitriy Timchenko of Ukraine in the last four.

Baldauf became the first wrestler from Norway in a decade to reach the gold medal final of a Greco-Roman event at the European Championships.

He met Aliaksandr Hrabovik of Belarus and collected the gold following a 2-1 success.

Aleksanyan recovered from his earlier disappointment to win one bronze while the other went to Balazs Kiss of Hungary.

Another Rio 2016 champion had a day to forget as Serbia's Davor Stefanek was beaten in the final of the 66kg Greco Roman competition.

Russia's Artem Surkov, winner of the gold medal at the 2015 European Games, thrashed Stefanek 12-1.

Bronze medals were shared between Soslan Daurov of Belarus and Georgia's Goga Gogiberashvili.

Las Vegas 2015 world champion Riza Kayaalp of Turkey muscled his way to the 130kg Greco Roman gold medal bout after pinning Christian John of Germany in the semi-finals.

Kayaalp went into the final aiming to win his sixth straight and seventh overall European crown, and completed the task when he beat junior world champion Balint Lam of Hungary 4-3.

Vitalii Shchur of Russia took one bronze while the other went to Levan Arabuli of Georgia. 

In the fourth and final category of today, Kristijan Fris of Serbia delighted the home crowd by winning the 59kg Greco Roman title.

He defeated Ivo Angelov of Bulgaria, who won the European and world titles in 2013, 3-1 in the final after edging defending champion Mingiyan Semenov of Russia in the semi-finals.

Ivan Lizatovic of Croatia and Semenov won the two bronze medals.

The event continues tomorrow.

Action also continued at the Pan-American Wrestling Championships in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil today.

Cuba claimed their fourth title in the men's Greco-Roman categories after winning three yesterday.

Oscar Pino Hands defeated Rio 2016 Olympian and world number 20 Robert Smith of the United States 4-2 in a tight affair in the final of the 130kg division.

Three-time World Championships medallist Jessica Macdonald of Canada led an emphatic day for her nation as she claimed gold in the women's 53kg competition.

She downed world number 13 Carolina Castillo Hidalgo of Colombia in the gold-medal match, 5-4. 

World number seven Michelle Fazzari, Braxton Stone and Olivia Di Bacco also all won gold for the Canadian team at 58kg, 63kg and 69kg, respectively.