Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial:
Hedayati stuns Kayaalp as Iran captures four GR medals
Superheavyweight wrestler Fardin Hedayati stole the show on the first day of the Greco-Roman contests at the Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial in Budapest as Iran grabbed four medals across three weight classes.
The 20-year-old prodigy enjoyed an emphatic run toward the 130kg glory, defeating two of the prominent stars of the class in the process.
The reigning world junior champion began the day with a 4-0 victory over Turkish great Riza Kayaalp – a winner of 13 world and Olympic medals – and then outmuscled former world bronze winner Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu of Romania by technical superiority in the semifinals.
Awaiting Hedayati in the final showpiece was high-profile Georgian Iakobi Kajaia, who won the silver at the Tokyo Olympics, but the Iranian rounded off his campaign in dominant fashion, cruising to a 5-0 triumph – a second gold medal for the young Iranian in this year’s UWW Ranking Series.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Mahdi Mohsennejad eased into the 60kg final with victories over refuge team’s Jamal Valizadeh (11-0) and South Korean Kim Dahyun (8-0), though he had to settle for the silver after a 6-5 loss to Pridon Abuladze of Georgia.
The result was still enough for Mohsennejad, who had won the Olympic quota for the country in last year’s World Championships, to secure his place in the Iranian six-man squad for the Games in July as his domestic rival Amir-Reza Dehbozorgi finished behind him on the third podium.
Dehbozorgi was beaten 4-0 by Abuladze in his first bout but came out on top against Algerian Abdelkarim Fergat (7-0) for the bronze medal.
Meysam Dalkhani was the other Iranian bronze winner in Budapest, sharing the third podium with Venezuelan with Raiber Jose Orozco in the 63kg event.
A world champion in 2021, Dalkhani bounced back from a 10-1 defeat against Azerbaijan’s Murad Mammadov – last year’s world silver winner – in the quarterfinals to outclass the host’s Levente Toth 11-0 in the third-place bout.
Saturday’s results came a day after the Iranian freestyle team had collected a gold through Hassan Yazdani in the 86kg contests, as well as a couple of silvers and bronzes apiece to finish as the runner-up in the team table with 117 points.
Abbas Ebrahimzadeh (65kg) and Adel Panahian (79kg) left the Hungarian capital with a final defeat, while Shahdad Khosravi (61kg) and Ali Rezaei (74kg) bagged two consolation bronzes.