Iran’s freestyle squad took six medals, including three gold, one silver and two bronze, and ranked second at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, after Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan finished third.
The Iranian wrestlers bagged four medals (two gold and two bronze) on the final day of the event on Sunday.
Reigning world and Olympic champion, Hassan Yazdani, was one of two Iranians to make the freestyle finals on the last day of the event.
Making his debut at the continental championships, Yazdani faced two-time Asian medalist Uitumen Orgodol from Mongolia in the 86 kg final and thrashed the rival 10-0 to decorate his trophy shelf with another gold medal.
Yazdani caused a stir when he was roughly slammed to the mat for a takedown just a few seconds into his opening quarterfinal match with Kazakh Azamat Dauletbekov.
But the Iranian shook off the shock and calmly reeled off five straight takedowns to end the first period up 10-2. He then finished the match 34 seconds into the second period with another takedown.
In the semifinals, Yazdani overwhelmed Javrail Shapiev of Uzbekistan with a pair of four-point moves to win by 13-0 technical fall within the first period.
In the 92 kg final, Mohammad Javad Ebrahimi clashed with Adilet Davlumbayev of Kazakhstan. They know each other from the 2016 World University Championships, where the Iranian won the gold and the Kazakh took a bronze at 86 kg. Ebrahimi again proved superior to Davlumbayev and defeated the Kazakh 5-3 to win the gold.
Mostafa Hosseinkhani ousted the New Delhi 2017 champion Bekzod Abdurakhmonov of Uzbekistan, 3-2, in their 74 kg quarterfinal match.
In the semis, Hosseinkhani lost the game to the finalist Muslim Evloev of Kyrgyzstan 8-4 and went to the repecharge match in which he humbled Turkmen Dovletmyrat Orgazgylyjov 10-0 in less than three minutes to grab the continental bronze medal.
The other bonze winner of the final day was Amin Taheri of 125 kg category. Taheri lost the semifinal match to the finalist of his weight category Davit Modzmanashvili of Uzbekistan and found the chance to win bronze in a repecharge match against Sohbet Belliyev of Turkmenistan. Taheri grabbed the bronze by hammering the Turkmen rival 14-4.
The Iranian squad also won two medals on the first day of the Asian tournament, March 3. In the category of 79 kg, Ezzatollah Akbari stormed into the final of the games to battle against the Uzbek wrestler Rashid Kurbanov. Akbari downed the rival 5-0 to win Iran’s first gold.
Mojtaba Goleij of 97 kg was in the final but lost the match to his Uzbek contender in a close match 5-3 to take his silver Asian medal.
