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Iranian wrestlers vying for team titles on return to U23 Worlds
Iranian wrestlers were unlucky to miss out on last year’s event in the Albanian capital after being denied entry visas by the European country.
Fardin Hedayati, world junior champion in 2023, will headline the Greco-Roman team in Tirana as he will be among the favorites for the ultimate prize in the 130kg contests.
The Iranian, who defeated Turkish great Riza Kayaalp in June’s Ranking Series event in Budapest, will see competition from Ukrainian Mykhailo Vyshnyvetskyi – victorious over Hedayati in the 2022 world U20 final – as well as Belarusian Pavel Hlinchuk, competing as a neutral athlete, who won the 97kg gold last year, and Turkey’s Muhammet Bakir.
Ali Ahmadi Vafa (55kg), Mohammad-Mahdi Gholampour (60kg), and Ahmadreza Mohsennejad (67kg) will represent Iran on the back of gold-winning campaigns in in September’s U20 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain.
Erfan Jarkani will be looking to improve on his under-20 bronze when stepping onto the mat in the 63kg contests, while Danial Sohrabi will chase a second world under-23 gold in the 72kg event, having won the 67kg title in 2022.
Yassin Yazdi will take part in the 87kg event as a former world junior silver medalist, with Ali Oskou (77kg), Mohammad Naqousi (82kg), and Shayan Habib Zare’ (97kg) completing the lineup of the Iranian Greco-Roman squad.
In the freestyle competitions, Amirreza Ma’soumi will be the superheavyweight to beat in the 125kg contests as the Iranian prodigy will go after a sixth world age-group gold medal in three years following his dominant display in Pontevedra.
Also a reigning world junior champion, Ali Rezaei will be part of the 74kg contests, perhaps the most competitive category in Tirana, which features two former world under-20 gold medalists in Dzhabrail Gadzhiev of Azerbaijan and American Mitchell Mesenbrink, as well as Asian senior champion Kota Takahashi of Japan.
Amirhossein Firouzpour (92kg) will be in Albania for his third U23 World Championships, having won the bronze in 2021 and gold in 2022. The Iranian will be the favorite for the gold along with Russian Mustafagadzhi Malachdibirov, who won the under-20 title in Pontevedra.
Ebrahim Khari will be the Iranian 61kg participant, looking to build on his under-20 silver in September, though defending champion Bashir Magomedov will still be the wrestler to beat in the weight class.
Mahdi Yousefi (79kg) and Abolfazl Rahmani (86kg) will also hope to improve on their world junior bronze medals, with Mahdi Hajiloueian getting his 92kg campaign underway as a former world U20 silver medalist.
Ali Mo’meni (57kg), Abbas Ebrahimzadeh (65kg), Sina Khalili (70kg) are the other members of Iran’s 10-man freestyle team.