Wrestling World Championships:
Qassempour eager to excel in new weight class
Iranian freestyle wrestler Kamran Qassempour will aim for yet another successful campaign at the World Championships as he embarks on a new chapter in his career at September’s showcase event in Zagreb.
Qassempour once dominated the 92kg category by claiming back-to-back world titles in 2021 and 2022, before injury setbacks and division switches hindered the Iranian in recent years.
A groin problem prevented the Iranian from defending his title at the 2023 Wrestling Worlds. Upon his return to action, Qassempour took a shot at the country’s 97kg slot for last summer’s Paris Olympics but ultimately finished behind compatriot Amir-Ali Azarpira in the pecking order and missed the trip to the French capital.
He returned to his favorite 92kg class for last year’s World Championships – dedicated to four non-Olympic weight categories – but the event in Tirana turned out to be one to forget for the Iranian.
Qassempour marched to the semifinals without conceding a single point, and looked set for a place in the final showpiece when he took a 3-1 lead against Russian sensation Abdulrashid Sadulaev.
However, with five seconds remaining, the two-time Olympic champion snapped the Iranian down, spun behind, and then managed to fling him to the mat for a four-point takedown to pull off a 5-3 comeback victory.
Qassempour barely recovered from the last-four heartbreak and suffered a 6-2 loss to American David Taylor – a familiar figure for Iranian fans due to his long-standing rivalry with Hassan Yazdani – leaving Tirana empty-handed.
On his return to the Albanian capital in March, Qassempour grabbed the 92kg gold in emphatic fashion to find some consolation, though it was his last piece of action in his favorite territory.
With three-time Olympic medalist Yazdani set to compete in the 97kg class once he fully recovers from a shoulder injury, the national team coaching staff convinced Qassempour to move to the 86kg category in what will likely be the 28-year-old’s last genuine tilt at Olympic glory in Los Angeles 2028.
Qassempour was ruled out of May’s International Takhti Cup in Isfahan – serving as part of the Iranian world trials – due to an untimely COVID-19 infection on the eve of the competition. However, he was given a second chance by the national governing body of the sport to earn a place in Zagreb in a domestic head-to-head showdown against teenage prodigy Abolfazl Rahmani – which Qassempour won 3-1 to punch his ticket for the Croatian capital.
Looking impressive and in fine form at the national team training camp in recent weeks, Qassempour is keen to secure a third world gold in September, with Iranian fans eager to see him in a likely encounter against Olympic champion Magomed Ramazanov – after the Russian-born Bulgarian capitalized on Yazdani’s injury to beat the Iranian great in the final in Paris.