Qassempour defeats Rahmani to book world 86kg spot
Freestyle wrestler Kamaran Qassempour secured the 86kg spot in the Iranian 10-man squad for September’s World Championships in Zagreb, thanks to a 3-1 victory over Abolfazl Rahmani at Tehran’s Ebrahim Hadi Hall on Tuesday.
An early passivity point was followed by Qassempour’s trademark single-leg takedown 10 seconds before the interval as the two-time world champion took a 3-0 lead at the break.
A world under-20 bronze medalist last year, Rahmani desperately pushed to reduce the deficit in the second period but only settled for a single passivity point in the closing stages of the contest.
Qassempour had been ruled out of the International Takhti Cup earlier in May – part of the Iranian world trials – with a positive coronavirus test, but was given a second chance by the Iranian Wrestling Federation in Tuesday’s domestic head-to-head against the Takhti Cup gold medalist.
Once the dominant force of the 92kg class with back-to-back world golds in 2021 and 2022, Qassempour moved up to the Olympic 97kg category ahead of last summer’s Paris Games, but ultimately missed out on a spot in the Iranian freestyle team in the French capital.
Qassempour switched weight class again in a bid to compete in the 86kg contests at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The 28-year-old Iranian is the sixth freestyle wrestler to book a ticket of Croatian capital.
Reigning world champion and Olympic silver medalist Amirhossein Zare’ (125kg) and Ali Mo’meni (57kg) won the gold medal in their respective events at the Takhti Cup to secure the world spot, joining Ahmad Mohammadnejad-Javan, Rahman Amouzad, and Amirhossein Firouzpour.
Mohammadnejad-Javan will be the Iranian 61kg wrestler, thanks to a gold-winning run at February’s Zagreb Open, as well as an Asian bronze in March.
Olympic silver winner Amouzad will chase a second world 65kg gold after domestic rivals Yassin Rezaei and Ali Khorramdel had below-par runs at the Ranking Series season-opener in the Croatian capital, while Firouzpour’s gold-winning runs at the Asian Championships and Zagreb Open, convinced the Iranian coaching staff to pick him for the world 92kg contests.
The 70kg, 74kg, 79kg, and 97kg slots remain up for grabs and will be decided through the international events and the domestic trials in the coming months, starting with the third Ranking Series event of the year, which kicks off in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Thursday.