Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial:
Yazdani granted a shot at Olympic history
Iranian wrestling sensation Hassan Yazdani made his long-awaited return from injury in emphatic fashion as he marched to the freestyle 86kg gold at the Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial tournament in Budapest.
His triumph meant Yazdani will be in the Iranian five-man team in July’s Paris Olympics, where he will have a shot at history.
A gold medal in the French capital will see Yazdani overtake taekwondo great Hadi Saei as the most decorated Iranian in the history of the Games with double golds and a silver.
The Iranian Wrestling Federation had made it clear before the UWW Ranking Series event that Yazdani, who had been sidelined for nine months due to a surgery on his injured shoulder, would be a part of the freestyle squad in Paris “only if his health and fitness levels are approved of by the national team coaching staff in Budapest.”
And the Iranian rose up to the occasion in the Hungarian capital as he was to back to his formidable best with less 50 days until the Paris extravaganza.
Yazdani claimed three superiority wins – including a last-four hammering of back-to-back world bronze medalist Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan – to reach the final showpiece, before crushing American Trent Hidlay 12-2 for the ultimate prize.
Yazdani’s dominant display makes the nine-time world and Olympic medalist the hot favorite for the gold in Paris, especially after his familiar foe David Taylor, who holds a 5-1 head-to-head record against the Iranian, was stunned by fellow-American Aaron Brooks in the U.S. Olympic trails in April.
“Our main objective here was to assess Yazdani’s fitness. This was his first tournament in nine months and we had concerns about his form but he seemed to have made a good recovery from the surgery. I’m sure he will reach his best for the Olympics,” Iran head coach Mohsen Kaveh said.
Elsewhere in Budapest, Ali Rezaei bounced back from a semifinal fall defeat against Russian-born Uzbekistani representative Razambek Jamalov – a former world under-23 champion – to beat Giorgi Elbakidze 5-3 for the 74kg bronze.
Abbas Ebrahimzadeh (65kg), Adel Panahian (79kg) had grabbed a couple of silvers on the preceding night, with Shahdad Khosravi taking a 61kg bronze, as the Iranian eight-man side tallied 117 points to finish as the runner-up in the team table.
Georgia won the team trophy with 133 points, with USA in third on 70.