Asian Wrestling Championships:
Valizadeh, Azimi steal the show, emerge as global contenders
It was business as usual for Iranian freestyle wrestling at the newly finished Asian Championships in Bishkek.
A remarkable haul of eight medals, including four golds, across 10 weight classes saw the global powerhouse finish atop the standings with 178 points – 16 clear of second-placed India – and claim a ninth continental team title in a decade on Sunday.
While the title-winning runs for Kamran Qassempour and Amirhossein Zare’, who share nine world and Olympic medals between them, were nothing beyond expectation, their compatriots Milad Valizadeh and Mohammad-Mobin Azimi introduced themselves as two new contenders in their respective categories by grabbing gold in the Kyrgyz capital.
Valizadeh built on last year’s Asian silver and world U23 bronze to dominate the 57kg division, finishing off with a 14-3 victory over Mongolian Munkh Erdene Batkhuyag in the final – the first gold medal for Iran in this weight class since Reza Atri’s triumph in 2019.
Batkhuyag suffered an apparent rib injury while scoring a stepout midway through the first period, which cut Valizadeh’s lead to 4-3. After the restart, Valizadeh – who had outmuscled India’s Ankush (10-0) and Japan’s Fuga Sasaki (11-0) en route to the final – shot in for a takedown, at which point Batkhuyag seemed to have stopped fighting.
But Valizadeh didn’t, and flip-flopped the lifeless Batkhuyag back and forth until he piled up enough points for a superiority victory that ended the match at 1:47 on Saturday.
Meanwhile, world U23 champion Azimi, who moved down to 92kg after taking a bronze at 97kg last year, was also in a league of his own.
The Iranian finished an 11-0 victory over Russian-born Magomed Sharipov, who represented Bahrain, with just under a minute to go – and 10 seconds after scoring his first takedown of the final on Sunday.
Azimi built up a 7-0 lead with a flurry of stepouts – five in all – before combining a takedown and gut wrench to conclude the match at 5:01.
The result meant that Azimi scored a total of 26 points across three bouts, not conceding a single point, in Bishkek.
It also saw the 23-year-old stake a claim for a place in the national team for September’s World Championships, though he will still have to see off domestic competition from his compatriot Amirhossein Firouzpour, who won world bronze in Zagreb last year.