Iranian Wrestling Teams to Participate at Ranking Series
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The former Kazakh capital Almaty will host the second of four Ranking Series events, the Bolat Turlykhanov Cup, from June 2 to 5.
Over 275 wrestlers from 15 nations spanning Africa, Asia, Europe and Pan-America will make the trek to the southern mountainous region of Kazakhstan for the point-earning Ranking Series event.
On the freestyle side of the competition, the biggest storyline is the insanely stacked squad that Iran is bringing. Leading the charge will be reigning world champions Hassan Yazdani Charati and Kamran Ghasempour and Amir Zare. Asian and junior world champion Amirhossein Firouzpour is moving up from 92kg to 97kg for the event, UWW.com reported.
Yazdani, the Rio Olympic gold medalist and Tokyo Olympic runner-up, will return to the mat for the first time since his ultra-emotional win over his arch-rival David Taylor (USA), which led to him winning his third world title. “The Greatest” enters the Bolat Turlykhanov Cup ranked second at 86kg – 1600 points behind first-ranked Taylor – but will grab the world’s top spot barring a catastrophic meltdown.
The world’s top Greco-Roman wrestler Mohammadreza Geraei headlines the GR entries. “The Iceman” enters the competition riding a five-tournament win streak and hasn’t lost since 2019. Geraei won Olympic, senior world, U23, and Asian gold medals during that impressive run.
Geraei will be wrestling at 72kg, which is five kilos up from his Olympic-winning weight of 67kg. Another Iranian reigning world champion that’ll also be moving up is Meysam Dalkhani. He won world gold at 63kg but will replace Geraei at 67kg for this tournament.
At 130kg, Olympic silver medalist and top-ranked Iakobi Kajaya (GEO) is the front-runner, but reigning world champion No. 5 Aliakbar Yousefi is tailing close behind.
Amin Mirzazadeh, Iran’s Tokyo Olympic Games rep, will look to regain his starting spot from Yousofia, who stepped into Iran’s lineup at the 2021 World Championships after Mirzazadeh tested positive for COVID-19 in the leadup to the Oslo.
Before Oslo, Mirzazadeh grabbed the Tokyo spot from Yousofi with a win in the Poland Open finals.
