UWW Ranking Series:
Iran settles for triple freestyle bronzes
The final UWW Ranking Series event of the season – the Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial – was one to forget for Iranian wrestling after the country’s freestyle team finished with three bronze medals in Budapest, Hungary.
Ali Savadkouhi brought the curtain down on a mediocre campaign for the four-man squad on Friday, finishing joint-third in the 86kg contests.
The former Asian champion recovered from a last-four fall defeat against ex-Olympic silver medalist Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau of Belarus to beat Kazakhstan’s Nurzhan Issagaliyev 3-0.
Abbas Ebrahimzad, Sina Khalili, and Fariborz Babaei were dealt a massive blow in their bid to secure a place in the national team for September’s World Championships in Zagreb after failing to grab the gold medal in their respective weight classes.
Ebrahimzad suffered a comprehensive 11-0 loss to Japanese world silver medalist Yoshinosuke Aoyagi in the 70kg semifinals and then was beaten 11-4 by Georgian Akaki Kemertelidze to miss out on the podium.
The other half of the 70kg bracket saw Khalili fall to a 4-1 defeat against Yegor Anchugin of Kazakhstan before he was handed a bronze medal following Mexican Austin Klee Gomez’s withdrawal with injury.
The two Iranians’ under-par results convinced national team head coach Pejman Dorostkar to give two-time world silver medalist Amir-Mohammad Yazdani a shot at the 70kg slot for September’s showpiece.
Meanwhile, Babaei is out of equation for the 79kg contests, leaving Mohammad Nokhodi – a four-time world medal winner – and reigning Asian champion Mahdi Yousefi in the mix for the visit to the Croatian capital.
A gold medalist in last month’s Ranking Series in Ulaanbaatar, Babaei failed to repeat the success, suffering a last-eight setback (4-1) against Georgia’s Vladimeri Gamkrelidze, who ultimately won the gold, before a 2-0 win against Kazakhstan’s Bolat Sakayev sealed a consolation bronze for the Iranian.
Elsewhere in Budapest, reigning world and Olympic champion Akhmed Tazhudinov was in his own league in the 97kg contests, cruising to the gold with four superiority victories, while world under-23 silver medalist Kota Takhashi of Japan marked his return from a nine-month injury with the ultimate prize in the 74kg event.