Wrestling World Championships:
Javan stuns Uguev, Zare’ retains superheavyweight supremacy
Iran’s Ahmad Mohammadnejad-Javan inflicted a shock defeat on three-time champion Zavur Uguev in the 61kg final, while Amirhossein Zare’ claimed a fourth superheavyweight title in five years, as the Iranian freestyle team collected two gold medals on the penultimate day of the Wrestling World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Despite Saturday’s triumphs, Iran missed out on a second successive team title at the event, settling for third place in the standings, with the two-horse title race between the USA and Russia going down to the wire on the final day.
Javan beats the odds
It was only back in August that Javan – a silver medalist on his Senior Worlds debut last year and an Asian bronze medalist in April – faced omission from the Iranian squad for the World Championships after weighing well above his category limit at a weigh-in session at the national team camp.
Less than three months on, however, Javan, despite his relatively unconvincing performances en route to the final, delivered a spot-on display to pull off one of the biggest upsets of three days of freestyle action, avenging last year’s final defeat to the Tokyo Olympic champion.
Javan handled everything Uguev threw at him in a frantic second period.
After Javan received an activity point in the first period, Uguev went ahead in the second with an activity point and a stepout from a single-leg attack.
When Uguev went on the attack again, Javan countered and spun behind for a go-ahead takedown, then added a gut wrench to lead 5-2.
The Russian desperately attempted to grab Javan’s leg twice more, only to see the 22-year-old Iranian get behind him on both occasions to secure a massive 9-2 victory and claim Iran’s first freestyle gold in Astana.
In another final featuring Iranian and Russian wrestlers later in the day, Zare’ proved to be in a league of his own in the 125kg class, cementing his status as the overwhelming favorite for the superheavyweight title at the Los Angeles Olympics in two years.
Also a world bronze medalist in 2022, Zare’ had little trouble putting away Abdulla Kurbanov with an 11-0 victory that ended 56 seconds into the second period – his fourth consecutive victory by superiority in Astana, during which he did not concede a single point.
In the first period, Kurbanov tried to match Zare’s power, but could only manage to give away five consecutive stepouts.
Kurbanov changed his strategy in the second period and tried to be more aggressive by shooting, but fared no better. Zare’ put his full weight on Kurbanov and spun behind him before hitting a gut wrench to make it 9-0. He then got behind Kurbanov again on another shot to end the match.
For Zare’, the victory keeps him undefeated since losing in the final of the Paris Olympics to Georgian Geno Petriashvili, adding to his titles at both the Asian Championships and Asian Games earlier this year.
Elsewhere, three-time silver medalist Mohammad Nokhodi made sure he would finish on the podium at the World Championships for a sixth successive occasion after progressing to the 79kg final.
An Asian Games gold medalist in October, Nokhodi opened his bid for a maiden world title with a 10-0 hammering of Tajikistan’s Somonjon Ikromov, then outmuscled Latvia’s Alans Amirovs in similar fashion, winning 12-2 to advance to the quarterfinals.
A nervy 6-4 victory over Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau of Belarus sent the Iranian into a semifinal clash against former world U23 champion Dzhabrail Gadzhiev of Azerbaijan. Nokhodi won 9-5 to set up a final meeting with American Levi Haines, who edged out Mongolia’s Suldkhuu Olonbayar on criteria (3-3) in the other semifinal.
Nokhodi’s compatriot Amirreza Firouzpour, meanwhile, missed out on improving on his bronze medal from last year’s edition after suffering an 11-8 defeat to American defending champion Trent Hidlay in a thrilling 92kg semifinal.
Hidlay was trailing 8-2 when he scored a takedown and used a leg lace to turn Firouzpour twice, leveling the score at 8-8 in the closing seconds of the first period. The Iranian held a criteria lead going into the break, before the American forced Firouzpour to concede another takedown to take a 10-8 lead.
Firouzpour dug deep in search of a match-winning takedown, but as he tried to jump over Hidlay, the American blocked him and planted him outside the zone to score one point, making it 11-8 and booking his place in a second successive World Championships final.
Saturday’s action was one to forget for Iranian duo Mohammad Valizadeh and Amir-Mohammad Yazdani.
Valizadeh opened his campaign with an 11-0 victory over Ukraine’s Roman Hutsuliak but suffered a 12-2 defeat to American Spencer Lee – a Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalist – in the round of 16.
Two-time world silver medalist Yazdani, meanwhile, pulled off nail-biting victories over Hungary’s Murad Kuramagomedov (4-3) and Cuba’s Geannis Garzon Tamayo (15-12) but was undone by Russia’s Inalbek Sheriev in the quarterfinals, losing by fall in the first period.
Saturday’s results came after Iran had collected two bronze medals through Rahman Amouzad (65kg) and Hassan Yazdani (97kg) on the preceding night, while Sina Khalili (70kg) and Kamran Qassempour (86kg) had finished empty-handed in their respective events.