Iranian wrestler Hassan Yazdani won the finals in Men's freestyle 74 kg over his Russian rival to add one more gold medal to Iran’s tally in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Competing with Aniuar Geduev in the final match on August 19, Yazdani beat his strong Russian opponent to win the first freestyle Olympic gold medal for Iran in 16 years, Mehr News Agency reported.
Iran’s last freestyle gold medal in the Olympic Games had been snatched by Alireza Dabir in Sydney 2000 and now Yazdani, 21, has broken the long spell by winning the title in Rio 2016. Hours earlier, Hassan Rahimi, 27, Iran’s contestant in Men's freestyle 57 kg, managed to come third after beating Yowlys Bonne from Cuba.
So far, Iran has 7 medals and is ranked 25th in the medal standings table. Kianoush Rostami and Sohrab Moradi in weightlifting won gold, Ghasem Rezaei and Saeid Abdevali in Greco Roman wrestling got bronze and Kimia Alizadeh in taekwondo, the first Iranian woman to win an Olympics medal and the youngest medal winner for Iran, also got the bronze.
The wrestling event will run through August 21, the last day of the games, and Iran still has hopes for more medals in other weight classes in which Meisam Nassiri in -65 kg, Alireza Karimi in -86 kg, Reza Yazdani in -97 kg and Komail Qasemi in -125 kg are competing. Further, Iran still has taekwondoka Sajjad Mardani in the +80 kg class and Mohammad Jafar Moradi in the marathon as the last athletes to compete in the games.
