TEHRAN - Iranian Greco-Roman wrestlers have claimed three bronze medals in the first four weight categories of the U-20 World Championships in Slovakia.
In the 63kg category, Ali Gharibi began his campaign with a dominant 9-0 victory over Dominika of Moldova. He then defeated Egypt’s Ahmed Youssef 12-3 in the second round to advance to the quarterfinals.
Gharibi beat Marganyan of Armenia 12-4 in the quarterfinals to book his place in the semifinals, where he suffered a 4-1 defeat against Russia’s Selim Kazmekhov.
The Iranian wrestler then faced Tichkavadze in the bronze-medal bout and secured a 1-1 criteria victory to take bronze at the U20 Greco-Roman World Championships.
In the 77kg category, Amirmehdi Saeedinava opened with a 10-0 victory over Sweden’s Gesterikvod before defeating Russia’s Berkovski 9-4 in the second round.
Saeedinava continued his strong run with an 8-0 win over Baran of Ukraine in the quarterfinals, advancing to the semifinals. He was then defeated 7-1 by Javidan Nematov and moved into the bronze-medal match.
In the third-place bout, Saeedinava defeated Anapiya of Kazakhstan 5-0 to secure Iran’s second bronze medal.
Amirhossein Nematzadeh, meanwhile, received a bye in the opening round before defeating Tagayev of Kazakhstan 8-0 in the second round to reach the quarterfinals.
Nematzadeh lost 5-1 to Petrosyan of Armenia in the quarterfinals, but advanced to the repechage after his Armenian opponent reached the final.
The Iranian wrestler then defeated Younesov of Kyrgyzstan 7-0 to earn a place in the bronze-medal bout.
Nematzadeh was scheduled to face Mayer of Austria for bronze, but the Austrian withdrew due to injury, handing the Iranian wrestler the bronze medal.
Iran therefore finished the first four weight categories of the U20 Greco-Roman World Championships with three bronze medals.
In latest development, Iliya Alikhani advanced to the bronze-medal bout in the 67kg category in after defeating his Dutch opponent in the repechage.
Alikhani defeated Laouna of the Netherlands 7-1 in the repechage.
At the end of the preliminary rounds in the second group of four weight categories, Iran remained in contention for one gold and one bronze medal.
Armin Shamsipour will compete for gold in the 55kg category, while Alikhani will wrestle for bronze at 67kg.
Ahmadreza Muhammadian in the 77kg category and Sam Muhammadi at 97kg, Iran’s other representatives in the second group of four weights, were eliminated from the competition on Monday.
Alikhani had earlier begun his 67kg campaign with a 9-0 victory over Chichso of Slovakia.
He then defeated Mukimov of Uzbekistan on criteria after their bout ended 1-1, advancing to the quarterfinals.
Alikhani lost 4-3 to Markovski of Belarus in the quarterfinals, but moved into the repechage after the Belarusian wrestler reached the final.
In the final two weight categories of the championships, Amirali Heydari opened his 60kg campaign with a 9-0 victory over Chitich of Moldova.
Alireza Mohammadhosseini also began his competition in the 82kg category with a 7-1 win over Hrovai of Slovakia.
Iranian wrestlers had previously won three bronze medals in the first four weight categories of the tournament.