U20 Wrestling World Championships:
Ahmadi grabs Greco-Roman gold, Seydi settles for silver
Iranian wrestlers won a gold and a silver medal across four Greco-Roman weight classes on the seventh day of the U20 World Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria.
In a battle between two 2023 world under-17 champions, Payam Ahmadi defeated Azerbaijan’s Turan Dashdamirov 5-3 to walk away with the ultimate prize in the 55kg contests.
Ahmadi began his campaign with a 9-4 victory over Omur Yntymak Uulu of Kyrkyzstan and then beat Russian Ivan Solomin, who competed as a neutral athlete, 6-4, before claiming a 3-0 win against Kazakhstan’s Arsen Zhuma to set a final date with Dashdamirov.
Later on Saturday, Mohammad-Hadi Seydi settled for a silver medal in the 97kg event after a 5-3 loss to Ukrainian Yehor Yakushenko.
Two-time Asian junior champion Seydi got off to a flying start in Samokov, notching up superiority victories over Bosnian Affan Smajić (10-1) and Croatian Andrej Rodin (9-0), before coming out victorious over Russian Ilia Komarov (5-3) for a place in the final showpiece.
Elsewhere, Gholamreza Abdevali recovered from a 5-3 setback against Kyrkyzstan’s Zhantoro Mirzaliev to overcome Swiss wrestler Saya Brunner (8-0) but eventually missed out on the 67kg podium after being undone by Uzbekistan’s Fayozbek Eshmirzaev (5-1) in the third-place bout.
Ahmadreza Ahmadian, meanwhile, suffered a first-round exit in the 72kg contests, courtesy of a 3-1 loss to Greek wrestler Arionas Kolitsopoulos, who was later beaten in the semifinals.
Saturday’s results came after Iran’s Mohammad-Amin Abdevali and Reza Azarshab had finished empty-handed in the 60kg and 82kg contests respectively.
Abdevali fell to a 3-2 defeat against Turkish Ömer Altaş in the round of 16, while Azarshab was beaten 7-3 by Armenian Martik Petrosyan in the quarterfinals.
Iran had to settle for a third-place finish in the freestyle competitions earlier in the Bulgarian city – a lowest spot for the country, which had lifted three team trophies over the previous four editions, since 2019.
Mahdi Yousefi was the sole Iranian freestyle gold medalist, thanks to a thrilling 8-6 win against American William Henckel in the 79kg final, while Ahoura Khateri (61kg) and Abolfazl Mohammadnejad (125kg) added a couple of silvers to the country’s medal haul.
Ebrahim Elahi (70kg) and Abolfazl Rahmani (86kg) bagged a consolation bronze in their respective events, as Iran collected 111 points.
The United States bagged 185 points to win the freestyle title for a second year in a row, dominating with seven medals, including a remarkable five golds, with Kazakhstan scooping one gold, one silver, and double bronzes to beat Iran to the runner-up spot by a single point.