Iran to learn from freestyle setback in Wrestling Worlds, Dabir says
The Iranian freestyle wrestling team will have to look back at the recent setback at the World Championships as a “pivotal point” for future success, said Alireza Dabir, the head of the country’s Wrestling Federation.
Pejman Dorostkar’s four-man squad settled for a single bronze through Mohammad Nokhodi in the 79kg contests in Tirana, Albania.
While young wrestlers Reza Mo’meni and Sina Khalili suffered last-eight exits in the 61kg and 70kg events respectively, two-time world champion Kamran Qassempour missed out on the 92kg podium on his return to action following back-to-back defeats against two of the sport’s greats in Russian Abdulrashid Sadulaev and American David Taylor.
Iranians had more to cheer about in last week’s Greco-Roman competitions in Tirana as Mohammadali Geraei marched past Hungarian Erik Szilvássy (8-0) in the final to walk away with the 82kg gold, with Pouria Dadmarz finishing with a 55kg silver after a defeat against Azerbaijan’s Eldaniz Azizli.
The seniors championships – featuring non-Olympic weight categories – came after Iran had bagged a total of 14 medals to make a clean sweep of team trophies in the under-23 event in the Albanian capital earlier in October.
“The Greco-Roman and freestyle teams won the under-23 titles in emphatic fashion, which is a massive achievement for Iranian wrestling,” Dabir told the official website of the Iranian federation, adding: “I think it’s fair to say we had a decent Greco-Roman campaign in the seniors’ contests with a gold and a bronze across four weight classes.”
Iran stood runner-up to Azerbaijan, which won a remarkable three golds, in the Greco-Roman team table, while finishing behind Georgia and Japan, which were tied for the first place, in the freestyle event.
Dabir, however, believes the two standings do not reflect Iran’s true status in world wrestling.
“I’m sure Japan and Georgia wouldn’t have been the top two, if the competition had been held in all 10 weight classes. Iran would have had a more successful campaign with a full squad, as is the case with Team USA, which took just a couple of bronzes, or wrestling powerhouse Russia, which won a single gold medal,” Dabir added.
“We still have to acknowledge the final outcome in the freestyle contests should have been much better, but one of our medal hopefuls Amirmohammad Yazdani missed the event with injury and was replaced with a young and inexperienced wrestler in Sina Khalili.
“Regarding the 79kg and 92kg classes, I must say we can either continue to mourn what happened to Nokhodi and Qassempour or, on the contrary, build on those defeats as a pivotal point for future success,” added the former world and Olympic champion.
Nokhodi, who defeated six-time champion Jordan Burroughs in the quarterfinals, surrendered a 6-0 lead against Georgian Avtandil Kentchadze with 45 seconds remaining to suffer a 14-8 loss in the semifinals.
Qassempour, meanwhile, looked to be on course for a third world final when he took a late 3-1 lead against Sadulaev, before the Russian sensation pulled off a four-point takedown with four seconds left on the clock.
“I had a long meeting with the Iranian freestyle coaching team after the event and told them they would have to come up with new training methods. The Japanese have been different from other teams in that regard, innovating their training approach, and their results [at major international competitions] have been evident,” Dabir said.
“We learned about our shortcomings in those four weight classes and have to make sure they will not repeat in next year’s World Championships.”
Regarding Iran’s freestyle rivalry with the United States and Russia, Dabir said: “Iran surpassed the Americans at the Olympics and the recent competitions, but we need to face the Russians more often and learn from possible defeats.”