Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial:
Iranians grab double silvers on Day 1
The first day of the Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial tournament in Budapest – the final UWW Ranking Series event before the Paris Olympics – saw Iranian wrestlers collect three medals, including a couple of silvers, in the freestyle contests.
Representing the country in the 65kg contests, Abbas Ebrahimzadeh came out 6-0 winner against Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliev – a three-time world champion and silver medalist in Tokyo Olympics – for a place in the final showpiece, but settled for the silver after a 12-8 loss to Japanese Kotaro Kiyooka.
Adel Panahian grabbed a second silver for the country when he fell to a 6-5 defeat against Georgian wrestler Otari Bagauri in the 79kg final.
Shahdad Khosravi, meanwhile, added a bronze to Iran’s medal count in the Hungarian capital as he bounced back from a last-four 7-3 defeat against Armenian Arsen Harutyunyan – a winner of three successive world bronzes – to outmuscle Giorgi Goniashvili of Georgia 8-0 and share the 61kg third podium with American Nahshon Garrett.
Ali Mo’meni (57kg), Mohammadali Amouzad (70kg), and Abolfazl Babalou (97kg) were also in action on the first day of the competitions but finished their campaigns empty-handed.