FISU World University Championship Combat Sports:
Greco-Roman glory as Iran completes men’s title double
Iranian wrestlers dominated the Greco-Roman competition with nine medals, including five golds, as the country completed a men’s team title double at the FISU World University Championship Combat Sports in Brasília, Brazil.
Morteza Alghosi capped Iran’s Greco-Roman campaign in style on Friday, defeating Russian wrestler Aleksandr Melekhov — competing as a neutral athlete — in the 130kg final to claim the gold medal.
Amirreza Dehbozorgi opened Iran’s gold account on the final day by beating Daniel Tebloev — also competing as a neutral athlete — in the 60kg final, before Mohammad Kamali outmuscled Türkiye’s Servet Angi to take gold in the 67kg division.
Mohammad Naghousi suffered defeat to Moldova’s Alexandru Solovei in the 77kg final and had to settle for silver.
Friday’s results came after Mahdi Kamali had secured gold in the 55kg category a day earlier, thanks to back-to-back victories over French and Brazilian opponents in a three-man Nordic-format bracket, while Hojjat Rezaei finished atop the podium in the 72kg division.
Reza Bahmani, meanwhile, settled for silver in the 63kg class after losing to Russian wrestler Ruslan Mamedov in the final, while Reza Azarshab (82kg) and Shayan Habibzareh (97kg) added two bronze medals to Iran’s haul.
A remarkable tally of 10 medals, including seven golds, in as many weight classes had already helped Iran dominate the freestyle competition earlier in the Brazilian capital.
Mahdi Veisi (57kg), Mahdi Rahimi (61kg), Mohammadreza Hosseini (65kg), Mohammad Bakhshi (70kg), Adel Panahian (79kg), Mohammad-Javad Salehi (92kg), and Erfan Alizadeh (97kg) were the gold medalists for Iran in the freestyle event.
Mohammad-Hossein Norouzian (86kg) and Morteza Janmohammadzadeh (125kg) claimed silver medals in their respective categories, while Mahdi Abbaspour took bronze in the 74kg division.