Ibrahim Moustafa Ranking Series:
Kavousi settles for silver, Firouzpour bags bronze
Iranian four-man freestyle wrestling team finished its campaign at the Ibrahim Moustafa Ranking Series in Alexandria, Egypt, with two medals.
On Sunday, Amirhossein Kavousi outmuscled opponents from Algeria, the United States, and Kazakhstan before suffering a 10-7 defeat against Georgian Avtandil Kentchadze in a thrilling 79kg final.
A silver medalist at the series’ season-opening Zagreb Open earlier in the month, Kentchadze stormed to an eight-point lead with 30 seconds into the contest but Kavousi managed to cut the deficit to four at the break.
In the second period, Kavousi doubled Kentchadze in front of the Iranian corner, cutting his opponent's lead to 8-6. Kentchadze, however, weathered the storm and used a go-behind off of Iranian’s single-leg attempt to increase his lead to 10-6. Despite giving up a late step out, the Georgian hung on to win.
Representing the country in the 97kg contests, reigning world under-23 and junior champion Amirhossein Firouzpour bounced back from a last-four defeat against Poland’s Zbigniew Baranowski to cruise to a 7-0 victory over Ukrainian Murazi Mchedlidze and walked away with a consolation bronze, sharing the third podium with Hungarian Vladislav Baitcaev.
Baranowski had to settle for the silver after a 7-1 loss to Russian-born Slovakian Batyrbek Tsakulov, who was the second best against American great Kyle Snyder in the final in last September’s World Championships.
The freestyle results came after the Iranians had collected a couple of golds in the Greco-Roman event earlier in Alexandria.
World champion in 2021, Meysam Dalkhani made a return from injury in style by defeating Leri Abuladze 8-7 – in a repeat of the world final two years ago.
Mohammad-Hadi Saravi was also handed the ultimate prize of the 97kg class after Georgian Roberti Kobliashvili was forced out of the final showdown with an injury.