U20 Wrestling World Championships:
Khateri bounces back to win consolation bronze in freestyle
Iran’s bid for a first freestyle team title in three years at the U20 Wrestling World Championships got off to a slow start in Bratislava, Slovakia, after Ahoura Khateri and Abolfazl Shamsipour failed to reach the final in their respective events.
Khateri still managed to rebound and finish with a consolation bronze medal in the 61kg class, while Shamsipour crashed out in the 86kg division.
Outmuscled in a technical superiority defeat (15-4) by American Aaron Seidel in the first round, Khateri recovered by claiming three emphatic wins.
A silver medalist at the competition last year, Khateri defeated Azerbaijan’s Jamal Abbasov 11-5 in his first repechage bout and then made quick work of home favorite Marian Kret, winning 10-0, before defeating Mexico’s Moses Mendoza Garza 12-7 in a thrilling third-place contest.
Seidel proved to be in a league of his own, securing three more technical superiority wins to reach the final, where he followed up with a 7-0 triumph over Kazakhstan’s Bekassyl Assambek for the top prize.
Russia’s Zelimkhan Chaniev walked away with the other bronze medal, thanks to a 7-4 win over Itsuki Younashiro of Japan.
Asian U20 champion Shamsipour, meanwhile, got off to a strong start, defeating Estonian Nikolai Tarassov 12-0 and Swiss wrestler Nick Scherrer 11-0, but was undone by another American opponent, Aeoden Sinclair, losing 4-4 on criteria in the quarterfinals.
Shamsipour was given a second chance in repechage after Sinclair reached the final, but failed to seize it, suffering a 4-0 loss to Kazakhstan’s Askhab Khajiev.
Sinclair went on to claim a second gold medal for the United States, which is chasing a third successive team title, by defeating Russia’s Akhmad Mukutov in the final.