Freestyle competitions for the second four-weight group kicked off in New Delhi on Sunday morning and Iran’s Behnam Ehsanpour (61kg), Alireza Karimi (86kg) and Yadollah Mohebbi (125kg) received tickets to the finals and Hamed Rashidi (70kg) will be present in a bronze-medal match.
Given that the Iranian wrestlers secured 33 points by collecting one silver and three bronze medals on the first day of freestyle events as well as that they will bag at least 33 more points today, Iran’s freestyle outfit has taken an early championship title in the prestigious Asian tournament.
On Sunday morning, Behnam Ehsanpour struck an off draw in the opening round before quelling Jihoon Yun of Korea 11-0 by technical fall. He later breezed past Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov 9-4 on road to the finals where he will meet North Korea’s Han Song Kim.
Iran’s other finalist is Alireza Karimi at 86kg weight category who had an easy task defeating China’s Nairisiga Nairisiga by technical fall in the qualification round and later overcame Gwanuk Kim of South Korea 7-0 to set up a date with Kazakhstans’s Azamat Dauletbekov in the gold-medal match.
Additionally, Iranian heavy weight freestyler Yadollah Mohebbi became a leg of the final round after winning over Hai Shang of Chian and the Mongolian rival Zolboo Natsagsuren as well as Koungjin Nam of Korea. Mohebbi will take up Sumit Sumit of the host country in an attempt to claim the title.
Meanwhile, Hamed Rashidi (70kg) lost hopes for a gold medal after suffering a defeat to the Uzbek contestant Ikhtiyor Navruzov. Later, the Iranian wrestler subdued Gunwoo Lee of Korea 10-0 by technical fall and will face the Tajik opponent Gulomdzhon Sharipov in a bid to land third. Rashidi had won over China’s Yin Luo by technical fall 10-0 in the opening round.
Previously on Saturday, Iran’s silver medal was clinched by Hossein Shahbazi who sustained a defeat to Magomed Idrisovitch Ibragimov from Uzbekistan in the final fixture of 97kg weight category.
Reza Atri (57kg) got the better of South Korean opponent Sunggwon Kim in a third-place encounter and bagged a bronze medal.
Similarly, Iran’s Meisam Nasiri at 65kg weight category faced and downed North Korea’s Kukgwang Kim and stood on the third podium.
The third medal for Iran was garnered by Bahman Teymouri who thrashed Tsubasa Asai from Japan by technical fall in the 74kg weight division.
Prior to freestyle competitions, the Iranian men's national Greco-Roman wrestling team stood on top of the podium with 69 points followed by the Kazakh outfit, which accumulated 59 points to be named the vice champion. South Korea also garnered 59 points but ranked third.
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