TEHRAN - Iranian freestyle wrestlers won two bronze medals in the first two weight categories at the World Wrestling Championships in Kazakhstan on Friday.
In the 97kg category, Hassan Yazdani defeated Bahrain’s Russian-born wrestler Ahmad Tazhudinov, a world and Olympic gold medalist, 5-0 in the bronze-medal bout to secure a place on the podium.
Yazdani began his campaign on Thursday with a victory over Kim of South Korea but lost 7-5 to Japan’s Arash Yoshida in his second bout, dropping into the repechage bracket. He then defeated India’s Vicky 10-0 to advance to the bronze-medal match.
The bronze medal marked Yazdani’s 11th medal at the World Championships and Olympic Games.
Earlier, Rahman Amouzad, Iran’s representative in the 65kg category, also claimed bronze after defeating Bulgaria’s Shamil Mamedov.
The two victories gave Iran two bronze medals in the first two weight categories of the competition.
In the 125kg weight class, Amirhussein Zare, , received a bye in the first round. 
In the second round, he defeated Jaspuran Singh of India 11–0 to advance to the quarterfinals.
 In that stage, the Iranian representative defeated Aaron Johnson of Jamaica 10–0, securing his spot in the semifinals.
In the semifinals, Zare defeated Wyatt Hendrickson of the United States 10–0, earning a dominant victory by technical superiority to reach the final. Zare will face Abdulla Kurbanov of Russia in the bout for the gold medal.