Iran Early Champion in Asia’s Junior Wrestling Event

Iran Greco-Roman wrestling team became the early champion of 2018 Asian Junior Championships in New Delhi as the young wrestlers bagged four gold medals and one silver on the opening day on Tuesday.

Iran entered the championships by putting five wrestlers into the opening day finals and collected the four gold medals. In their fifteen matches, Iran had ten wins, according to the Unitedworldwrestling.org.

Pouya Nasserpour, the 2014 cadet world bronze medalist, sparked Iran’s gold medal parade by thumping a rival from India 8-0, grabbing the 5kg gold medal.

Enroute to his first continental title, Nasserpour outscored his opponents 24-0 while picking up three technical superiority victories.

In the 63kg class, Bahram Maroufkhani hooked Iran’s second gold medal by coming out on top of the back and forth battle over Uzbek Kamol Kuziev 7-3.

Maroufkhani commanded an early 5-0 lead, but conceded a takedown and a step out, ending the first period with a two-point lead. The Iranian closed out the extremely slow-paced second period with a takedown, ultimately scooping up the 7-3 victory.

Mohammad-Hadi Saravi added a third gold to Iran’s collection, blasting Maimaiti Kaisaier of China 9-0 in the 87kg finals.

Saravi needed barely four minutes to pick up the technical superiority win over his Chinese opponent. This marked the third time in the day that the Iranian wrestler picked up a shutout victory and the second time in the day where he collected a 9-0 technical superiority victory.

Amin Mirzazadeh capped off the first day of competition with a 2-1 win over India’s Aryan Panwar in the 130kg finals, giving Iran its fourth gold medal of the day.

Iran’s only silver was earned by Shayan-Hossein Afifi who lost his last game to India’s Sajan 3-0 in the 77kg finals.

Four Iranians also secured their tickets for the final games on Wednesday which means at least four silver medals are secured.

The results of the final day were yet not released as this paper went for print. Considering the fact that no other country can reach the total number of medals Iran has collected, Iran can be named the early champion of the event before it ends.