UWW Ranking Series:
Yousefi wins Zagreb Open gold, enters the fray for Iran’s world spot
Superheavyweight wrestler Ali-Akbar Yousefi made his return to international scene in style by cruising to the Greco-Roman 130kg crown at the Zagreb Open on Sunday.
A world champion in 2021, Yousefi began his emphatic run with a 10-1 rout of Russian Sergey Semenov, who stunned Turkish great Riza Kayaalp for the European title last year, and then claimed comfortable victories over Hungary’s Koppany Laszlo (6-1) and Sarkhan Mammadov (9-1) of Azerbaijan for a place in the final showpiece against Finland’s Konsta Maeenpaeae.
Yousefi, whose last international appearance had come in the 2023 Budapest Ranking Series, rounded off his campaign with a 9-1 triumph over the Finnish wrestler, throwing down the gauntlet to reigning world champion and Olympic bronze medalist Amin Mirzazadeh and world U23 gold medalist Fardin Hedayati for the Iranian spot in September’s World Championships in the Croatian capital.
Gholamreza Farrokhi was also among the Iranian gold medalists at the first Ranking Series of the season, thanks to a 6-2 win against Hungarian world silver winner Erik Szilvassy in the 82kg showdown.
There were, however, disappointing finishes for the Iranian duo Mohammadreza Geraei and Danial Sohrabi in the 72kg contests.
Ex-Olympic champion and three-time world medalist Geraei fell to a loss on criteria to Hungarian teenager Levente Levai in the semifinals and then finished his campaign empty-handed after an injury ruled him out of the third-place bout against Ruslan Nurullayev of Azerbaijan.
Sohrabi, meanwhile, suffered a 4-3 defeat against 19-year-old Levai and settled for the silver.
Mahdi Ahadi also left the Croatian capital with a silver medal following a 7-0 defeat against Azerbaijan’s Elmir Aliyev in the 55kg final.
Pouya Naserpour added a bronze medal to Iran’s Greco-Roman haul on the final day of the competitions, bouncing back from a last-four setback against Serbia’s Georgij Tibilov to beat Azerbaijan’s Huseyn Garibov by superiority (9-1) in the 60kg event.
Mohammad-Mahdi Keshtkar had won a first Greco-Roman medal for Iran in Zagreb, taking a silver in the 63kg class.
A total tally of double golds, three silvers, and one bronze saw the Iranian squad finish atop the team table with 147 points – 13 clear of second-placed Azerbaijan – with Hungary in third on 119 points.
The Greco-Roman triumph came after the Iranian 16-man team had collected four golds and silvers apiece to finish runner-up to the United States in the freestyle competitions earlier in the Arena Zagreb.
Abbas Ebrahimzadeh (65kg), Amirhossein Firouzpour (92kg), and Amirreza Ma’soumi (125kg) walked away with the ultimate prize of their respective weight classes, while Ahmad Mohammadnejad-Javan came out on top against Ebrahim Khari in an all-Iranian 61kg final.
Abolfazl Babalou was beaten by American great Kyle Snyder in the 97kg final, with young prodigies Sina Khalili (70kg) and Mahdi Yousefi (79kg) adding a couple of silvers to Iran’s haul.