Iran Wins Greco-Roman Title

Iran Greco-Roman team won the Cadet World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, on Sunday with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals. It is the first world title after 22 years for the cadets of the country.

According to the results released on the United World Wrestling website, Amir-Hossein Khansari in 55kg and Mohammad Nosrati in 92kg won gold and added their names in the list of world champions.

Khansari first overpowered Diamantino Iuna Fafe of Guinea Bissau 5-0. Advancing to the quarterfinals, he defeated Romanian wrestler Manuel Stoica 8-1 and booked a place in the semifinals.

In the intense semifinal against Amirbek Sultonov of Uzbekistan, Khansari beat the rival 6-5 and stormed into the finals against Georgian Giorgi Petraia ending his hopes with a neat 7-0 to win gold.

Nosrati faced a challenging draw as took on Artur Vegh of Hungary in the first match. Nosrati defeated the Hungarian 2-1 and faced Osman Ayaydin in the next stage. Nosrati beat the Turk with three points and giving away only one.

Nosrati went on to vanquish Lithuanian Ignas Bukauskas 3-0 in the quarterfinal and then hammered Lasha Tvildiani of Georgia with the same result to meet the Russian Aleksi Mileshin. The 3-3 draw served good for Nosrati as he won a 2-point hold to qualify for gold.

 Men of Silver

Two of the team members won silver. Sajjad Abbaspour in the 48kg and Shahin Badaghi in 60kg secured their places in the finals but fell short of the gold.

Resting in the first round, Abbaspour hammered Moldavian Leonid Moroz 10-1 and moved on to the quarterfinal with Constantin Ionut Tudor from Romania. Abbaspour defeated the Romanian 10-0 and went into the semis where he edged Arshad Arshad from India 6-5.

In the final encounter against Uzbek world champion Artor Atabaev, Abbaspour gave four points away and despite making the game 4-4 he could not win the gold as his rival made four points in less number of technical moves.

The second and last silver medal of the team was taken by Shahin Badaghi in the 60kg category. Hammering Philip James Moomey from the US 6-2 in the qualification round, Badaghi then thrashed Russian Vladislav Karasev 14-0 in the second game.

Badaghi’s quarterfinal against Azeri Adam Hajizada ended 9-0 and he went to the semis to fight the Pravesh Pravesh where the Iranian overpowered his Indian rival 6-1 and secured a place in final.

The battle for gold with Serhat Kirik from Turkey was not good for Iran as the Turk won 4-1 and left Badaghi to pick up the silver medal.

 Bronze Winners

In the 65kg class, Hossein Qasemi took the first strong step, beating Saudi Arabia’s Hassan Shaya Alharthi 9-0 to meet Mykyta Politaiev from Ukraine in the next round. Beating the Ukrainian 4-0, Qasemi found himself in the quarterfinals opposite Muslim Imadaev form the powerhouse Russia. Imadaev won the game with a margin of five points as he defeated Qasemi 8-3.

Bidding farewell to gold and silver, Qasemi had his chance in two repechage games where he won bronze.

Mohammad Naqousi in the 80kg class stormed into his first battle beating Russian Amirkhan Tsechoev 4-3. The young Iranian played Dutchman Tyrone Sterkenburg in the second game and beat him 5-0. In the quarterfinal, Naqousi ended hopes of Oktay Demir from Turkey, winning 8-0. But his own golden hope was shattered by Giorgi Tsopurashvili of Georgia as he lost the match 7-1 in the semis to settle for bronze.

The overall performance of Greco-Roman wrestlers put Iran atop the table with 130 points. Russia came second with 108 points and Turkey was third with 91 points.

On Friday, Iran freestyle team won the title of the Cadet World Championships in Zagreb. With a total of three gold, one silver and three bronze medals, Iranian freestylers left Croatia with the team title with 152 points. The US trailed with 132 points and Russia came in third with 116 points.