United World Wrestling issued the first ranking list for of 2018 in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling on February 1.
According to the UWW website, the rankings come after an opening weekend of Greco-Roman and freestyle tournaments last week in Iran and Russia, respectively.
The list follows top six wrestlers in each weight category. In the freestyle category there is no mention of Iranians but in the Greco-Roman class their appearance is remarkable.
Moslem Naderi and Reza Khedri, both in 55kg class, are placed third and fourth in the top six list respectively. Ekrem Ozturk of Turkey stands on the first place while Bachana Putkaradze form Georgia is second.
In the category of 60kg, Mehrdad Mardani is the only Iranian in second place from among the top six. Kanybek Zholchubekov from Kyrgyzstan is first.
Mohammad Nourbakhsh in the 63kg class is third after Kaly Sulaymanov from Kyrgyzstan and Kudaibergen Tursynov from Kazakhstan who are first and second.
In the fourth weight category Iran has one name among six. Mohammad Elyasi in the 67 kg came fourth after wrestlers from Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Turkey.
Going to the 72kg class, Iranian and Kazakhs dominated the list each with two wrestlers among the top six. Demeu Zhadrayev and Ibragim Magomadov both from Kazakhstan stood first and third while Farshad Belfakeh and Afshin Byabangard came fourth and sixth respectively.
The 77kg class ranking was half-occupied by Iranian wrestlers. Mohammad-Ali Geraei is atop the list while Boroomand Gharehdaghi is fourth and Pejman Poshtam last among the top six wrestlers.
The pattern is the same in the 130kg class where Iran’s wrestlers took three places out of six. Behnam Arpatapeh, Shahab Ghourehjili and Abolfazl Najafi take first, third and fifth places respectively.
In categories of 82kg and 87kg Iranian wrestlers had one place in each. Keyvan Dalini was fifth in the 82kg and Saman Azizi first in the 87kg class.
One third of the 97kg group went to the Iranians with Ali Heidari in third place and Mohammad Yeganeh fifth.
Iran’s Greco-Roman squad was first in the Takhti Cup International Greco-Roman Wrestling Tournament with 12 medals (three gold, one silver and eight bronze) in Mahshahr, Khuzestan Province, January 25-26.
The United World Wrestling has registered the cup in the list of annual ranking series which gives credibility to the cup as a validated event for its points to be considered for wrestlers affecting their place in the UWW ranking.
