UWW Ranking Series:
Mirzazadeh dominates superheavyweight class, Ahmadi Vafa settles for bronze
The final day of the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series tournament in Tirana, Albania, saw Iran’s Amin Mirzazadeh ease to the Greco-Roman 130kg gold medal, while Ali Ahmadi Vafa finished with a consolation bronze in the 60kg contests.
Making his first appearance since winning the superheavyweight bronze at last year’s Paris Olympics, where he was only beaten by Cuban great Mijain Lopez, Mirzazadeh adopted the same gameplan throughout his four bouts to walk away with the ultimate prize in the Albanian capital.
The reigning world champion got the first passivity and scored by a turn from par terre before holding off the reverse position in the second period, winning his quarterfinal, semifinal, and final bouts by the same scoreline of 3-1. It was only in his first match against Estonian Heiki Nabi that Mirzazadeh took advantage on both par terre positions to win 4-0.
While the final showpiece against Turkish Hamza Bakir, who has all three age-group world titles under his belt, did not take a toll on Mirzazadeh, the Iranian will still have to see off domestic competition from young prodigy Fardin Hedayati and Ali-Akbar Yousefi to secure a place in September’s World Championships in Zagreb.
A world junior and under-23 gold medalist over the past two years, Hedayati will be eager to have a shot at seniors’ glory, having won double Ranking Series titles last season.
A world champion in 2021, Yousefi, meanwhile, made an emphatic return to international scene in February by claiming three superiority victories on his way to the gold medal at the Zagreb Open Ranking Series event.
Earlier on Sunday, reigning world U20 and U23 champion Ahmadi Vafa got off to losing start to his campaign, suffering a 12-6 defeat against former world bronze medalist Yu Shiotani of Japan.
The Iranian still managed to recover from the setback to hammer China’s Ziyue Xi (11-2) and home-favorite Ergi Uku (10-0) before crushing Akyl Sulaimanov of Kyrgyzstan 12-3 for a joint-bronze alongside Chinese Haodong Tan.
Shiotani, meanwhile, did not concede a point following his first win, defeating Georgian Amiran Shavadze 9-0 in the final.
Sunday’s results came after Iran had collected a gold and a bronze medal earlier in the Greco-Roman competitions.
An Olympic silver medalist last year, Alireza Mohmadi won the 87kg gold after Hungarian David Losonczi pulled out of the final showpiece with injury. The pinnacle of the Iranian’s campaign, however, came in the last-eight round, where he outmuscled Semen Novikov 5-0, avenging the final loss to the Bulgarian in Paris.
Mahdi Mohsennejad settled for a bronze medal in the 63kg class, beating Romanian Razvan Arnaut 3-1 in the third-place contest.
There was further glory for Iran in the freestyle event last week in Tirana, Ali Mo’meni (57kg), Rahman Amouzad (65kg), Kamran Qassempour (92kg), and Amirhossein Zare’ (125kg) collected four gold medals, while Erfan Alizadeh settled for the 97kg silver and Younes Emami took the bronze in the 74kg class.