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UWW Ranking Series:
Qassempour buries ghosts of past to win gold in Tirana
Kamran Qassempour replays the match in his mind as he speaks. He remembers the move and the loss clearly.
At the World Championships in October last year, Qassempour was four seconds away from upsetting Abdulrashid Sadulaev but the latter pulled off an incredible move to beat the Iranian in the semifinal. While the Russian won the gold, Qassempour returned empty-handed after losing his bronze-medal bout to American David Taylor.
Qassempour may not be able to completely erase the memories of that loss with the freestyle gold medal he won at the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series event on Thursday, but he says it will help him move on.
“Last year, in this very hall, it was a very bad scene for me,” Qassempour said. “Even today when I was standing on the podium, I remembered it. I should have finished on the top podium [at the World Championships]. The regret remained. But well, it’s wrestling, and that’s part of the sports. I tried to forget it and continue on my path.”
On Thursday, Qassempour returned to Tirana at 92kg and showed once again why he is one of the best in the world in his favorite weight class. Wrestling in three bouts, he did not give up a single point [28-0], and scored two technical superiority wins including the final.
“The competition went well,” he said. “I was able to wrestle with three good opponents in this tournament and fortunately, I managed to achieve first place. The wrestler [in the final] was a good competitor. I had watched his matches beforehand and planned well. My goal was to put on a good performance, and thankfully, I succeeded.”
In his first bout against Georgian world silver medalist Miriani Maisuradze, Qassempour ran to an 8-0 lead before moving to defense. He then gut-wrenched Feyzulla Akturk of Turkey and in the final, he broke Russian Alan Bagaev with ease to win with two minutes remaining.
“I’ve been wrestling in the 92kg weight class for several years,” he said. “Despite that unfortunate result [last year], this arena was a good field for me. I’m trying to increase my readiness and participate in the next competitions.”
Paris Olympic silver medalist Amirhossein Zare’ added a second gold medal to Iran’s haul on Thursday as he defeated Zelimkhan Khizriev in the 125kg final.
Leading up to the final Zare’, who had his elbow tapped, looked shaky in his movements on the mat but, come the final, he made sure Khizriev wasn’t much of a problem, easing to a 10-0 triumph.
A third Iranian could have won gold medal but Japan’s Arash Yoshida Erfan Alizadeh in the 97kg final.
Yoshida led 1-1 on criteria at the break and then got the point for Alizadeh’s passivity and scored a stepout to lead 3-1 with 90 seconds left on the clock.
Alizadeh managed to score a stepout with seven seconds on the clock but Yoshida closed it out to win 3-2.
Thursday’s results came after the Iranians had collected three medals, including double golds, on the preceding night in the Albanian capital.
Rahman Amouzad, also an Olympic silver medalist last year, made it to the 65kg final as expected, before a 5-1 victory over former world bronze winner Taiyrbek Zhumashbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan saw the Iranian, a world champion in 2022, walk away with the ultimate prize.
Ali Mo’meni, who was in Tirana last year for the U23 World Championships and won a bronze medal, grabbed the 57kg gold, thanks to fall victory over Aiaal Belolyubskii of Tajikistan.
The young Iranian was down 2-1 at the break but never looked worried and a half whip-over from Mo’meni in the second period caught Belolyubskii unbalanced and the Iranian was quick to hold him on the mat to seal the victory.
Mo’meni’s gold more or less confirms his place in April’s Asian Championships as he also defeated fellow-Iranian Hadi Rezaei in the first round to make a claim for the spot in Amman.
In the 74kg contests, two-time world bronze medalist Younes Emami bounced back from a last-four 8-3 setback against the host’s Chermen Valiev to beat Kyrgyzstan’s Orozobek Toktomambetov 6-1 and share the third podium with Hungary’s Murad Kuramagomedov.