Iran tops US, Russia to grab world wrestling title

Iran tops US, Russia to grab world wrestling title
Mon Mar 17, 2014 09:04:54

Iranian wrestlers have captured the world champion’s title at the US-held 2014 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup competitions in Los Angeles, scoring decisive team victories over their rivals, including Russia and the United States, which enjoyed the advantage of hosting the games.

The Iranian national team captured the top spot in the ranking chart on Sunday evening, when they beat the mighty Russian national team 4-2 in the final bouts, which was held at The Forum, a major metropolitan Los Angeles arena in Inglewood.

Prior to defeating the Russian wrestling team in the final day of the world competitions, the Iranian squad had mightily overwhelmed the Armenian team 8-0, trounced Turkey 7-1, defeated the American hosts 5-3 and routed the Indian team 8-0.

In their final bout with the Russians, Iran’s Hassan Rahimi conceded defeat in the 57-kilogram weight class, and lost to Russian freestyle wrestler Viktor Lebedev.

Then in the 61-kilogram weight category, Masoud Esmailpoor emerged triumphant against Murad Nukhkadiev to chalk up Iran’s first victory against Russia.

Seyyed Ahmad Mohammadi notched up the second successive win for Iran in the 65-kilogram and defeated his Russian rival Alibeggadzhi Emeev by a technical fall.

Mostafa Hosseinkhani was the winner in his bout against Khetik Tsabolov in the 70-kilogram weight class.

Ezzatollah Akbari was defeated by Akhmed Gadzhimagomedov in the 74-kilogram weight category. However, Ehsan Lashkari pulled off another victory for Iran in the 86-kilogram weight class after he trounced Anzor Urishev.

In the 97-kilogram weight category, Iranian wrestler Reza Yazdani also scored a win, overpowering Russia’s Yuri Belonovsky.

Finally, the Iranian man-mountain Komeil Ghasemi won the 125-kilogram weight category after he overcame Anzor Khezriev.

The top 10 men’s freestyle wrestling teams in the world took place in the 2014 Freestyle World Cup, held in Inglewood, California on March 15-16. Iran was drawn in Pool A along with the United States, Turkey, Armenia, and India. Pool B consisted of Russia, Ukraine, Mongolia, Japan, and Georgia.

The Iranian team was the top-ranked squad at the end of the 2013 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup staged at the 12,000-seat hall of the Azadi Sports Complex in west Tehran on February 21-22. Russia landed in the second place, while the United States settled for the third spot.

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