TEHRAN – Three Iranian wrestlers were among only four competitors to successfully defend their world titles at the 2026 World Wrestling Championships in Astana, according to United World Wrestling (UWW).
The international governing body of wrestling highlighted the achievement of Saeid Esmaeili, Amirhussein Zare’, and Gholamreza Farrokhi, who retained their respective world titles alongside American wrestler Kyle Snyder.
UWW noted that only four wrestlers from the 2025 world championships managed to repeat their gold-medal performances at this year’s competition.
On Sunday, Iranian the United World Wrestling had named heavyweight wrestler Amirhussein Zare has as the world’s best freestyle wrestler.
“Amirhussein Zare dominated the 125kg division in Astana, powering his way to a fourth world title and our freestyle Top Performance of the 2026 World Championships,” UWW wrote on its official Instagram page. 
Zare scored 42 points throughout the tournament without conceding a single point to his opponents. Zare defeated wrestlers from India, Jamaica, the United States, and Russia on his way to the world title.
Iran’s Greco-Roman team finished first in the team standings, while the country’s freestyle team secured third place.