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FISU World University Championship Combat Sports:
Iran sweeps 10 medals to dominate freestyle wrestling
Four Iranians stole the show on Tuesday by claiming gold in their respective divisions.
Mahdi Rahimi opened Iran’s account for the day by winning the 61kg final, while Mohammad Bakhshi defeated his Russian opponent to claim the title in the 70kg category.
Adel Panahian suffered a second-round defeat to a Russian wrestler but bounced back to beat the same opponent in the final and take gold in the 79kg Nordic bracket.
Erfan Alizadeh, meanwhile, defeated opponents from Canada, Brazil and Russia before capping Iran’s remarkable campaign with a victory over a Turkish rival in the 97kg final.
Tuesday’s results followed the success of Mahdi Veisi (57kg), Mohammadreza Hosseini (65kg) and Mohammad-Javad Salehi (92kg), who had claimed three gold medals for Iran on the opening day of competition in the Brazilian capital.
At 125kg, Morteza Janmohammadzadeh advanced to the final with commanding 10-0 victories over opponents from Hungary and Mongolia before defeating a Russian wrestler in the semifinal. He was ultimately beaten by a Turkish rival in the gold-medal bout and had to settle for silver.
Mohammad-Hossein Norouzian also earned silver in the 86kg category. He defeated opponents from Finland and Spain to reach the final, where he fell to a Turkish wrestler.
Mahdi Abbaspour, meanwhile, finished his 74kg campaign with a bronze medal. The Iranian defeated a German wrestler in his opening match before losing to a Russian opponent in the next round. He recovered in the bronze-medal match against a Moldovan rival to secure a place on the podium.