Yasar Dogu & Vehbi Emre tournament:
Vafaeipour clinches 86kg gold as Iran wins freestyle title
Sports Desk
Hadi Vafaeipour rounded off a dominant campaign at Yasar Dogu & Vehbi Emre tournament with the 86kg gold as Iran claimed the freestyle team title in Antalya, Turkey.
Days after the country’s Greco-Roman glory had been marred by Mohammadreza Mokhktari’s brawl with the host’s Yuksel Saricicek in a 77kg semifinal, Iranian wrestlers bagged triple golds, coupled with double bronzes, to finish atop the freestyle table with 115 points, with Kyrgyzstan (110 points) and Mongolia (108 points) in the following spots.
Having eased to victories over opponents from Kazakhstan, Japan, and Georgia, Vafaeipour outmuscled Mongolian Byambadorj Bat Erdene by technical superiority (10-0) to walk away with the ultimate prize – keeping his slender chances of a place in the Paris Olympics alive.
Freestyle sensation Hassan Yazdani is the favorite to headline the Iranian squad in the French capital in August but the nine-time world and Olympic medalist is yet to return to full training following a shoulder surgery that has kept him out of action since last October.
A national champion in December, Vafaeipour, meanwhile, will be on the lookout for a late callout, should Yazdani fail to chase a third Olympic medal in Paris.
Elsewhere in Antalya, Amir-Reza Ma’soumi bounced back from a setback against fellow-Iranian Amirhossein Zare’ in January’s Ranking Series event in Zagreb – which saw him miss out on the Olympic superheavyweight berth – by winning the 125kg gold, thanks to a 4-3 victory over the 2022 world silver winner Mönkhtöriin Lkhagvagerel of Mongolia in the final showdown.
Amirhossein Firouzpour – a former world cadet, junior, and under-23 champion – continued his impressive run among the seniors as the young Iranian hammered Moldovan Andrian Grosul 11-1 for the 92kg gold.
Elsewhere, Amir-Mohammad Yazdani, runner-up in last September’s World Championships, recovered from a shock last-four defeat against Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur Ochir to beat Azerbaijani Magomed Bashir Khaniev 11-2 for a consolation bronze in the 70kg weight class.
Mohammad-Mahdi Palangvar also left Antalya with a bronze, courtesy of a 7-6 win against Adlan Askarov in the 65kg contests.
Medals in Sofia
Meanwhile, Iranian wrestlers finished their campaigns at the Dan Kolov and Nikola Petrov tournament in Sofia with seven medals across the Greco-Roman and freestyle competitions.
Gholamreza Farrokhi (77kg), Mohammad Naqousi (82kg), and Amir-Reza Akbari (97kg) collected three gold medals, with reigning Olympic champion Mohammadreza Geraei stunned by a pinfall loss to Kazakhstan’s Adilkhan Satayev in the 72kg final as Iran stood third in the Greco-Roman event in the Bulgarian capital.
In the freestyle contests, Abbas Ebrahimzadeh ran away comfortable winner over Yun Jun-sik of South Korea for the 65kg gold, while Mohammad-Mobin Azimi outclassed Macedonian Redjep Hajdari 11-0 in the 92kg final.
Yassin Rezaei added a third freestyle medal to Iran’s haul, taking the bronze in the 61kg class.