#OlympicChannel

Olympic Channel: Iran's 'Greatest' Hassan Yazdani Seeks Wrestling Immortality

By Andrew Binner

Hassan YAZDANI, a 25-year-old native of Jouybar, is already a national hero in Iran. He's claimed gold at the Rio Olympic Games and has a pair of world titles on his resume. In an article published on the Olympic Channel, Andrew Binner broke down the career of "The Greatest" and looked at his path to a potential second Olympic title.

"Freestyle wrestling is Iran’s national sport, so when Hassan Yazdani pinned down the 74kg gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, he became an instant national hero.

He moved up to 86kg, which better suited his growing frame, taking out the world championships gold medal at his new weight division in 2017 and 2019.

Yazdani became known as The Greatest and Fearless back home, while his Instagram account swelled to over 500K followers. Quite simply, he could walk the streets of Iran like he was The King… which is incidentally another one of his nicknames there.

“The truth is that I hope I am worthy of these nicknames,” he told Tehran Times. “Each one is valuable for me and so I hope I can live up to the nicknames and the expectations of my great fans. I always want to keep their hope, so I accept them all and just hope that I am worthy.”

Read more on the Olympic Channel's site ... here

#WrestleBudapest

#WrestleBudapest 4th Ranking Series freestyle entries

By Eric Olanowski & Vinay Siwach

BUDAPEST, Hungary (June 22) -- When the fourth Ranking Series in Budapest, Hungary begins on July 13, the World Championships will be just two months away. Most countries would have finalized their world squads and would like to give them a shot at the international competition before the big showdown in Belgrade in September.

The freestyle entry list of the Budapest Ranking Series -- Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial -- confirms the interest of countries giving international experience to their wrestlers.

Iran will send its top wrestlers -- notably world silver medalist Mohammad NOKHODI (IRI)
and Ali SAVADKOUHI (IRI) at 79kg -- perhaps to finalize which one of the two wrestlers in Belgrade.

It has also entered Amirmohammad YAZDANI (IRI) at 70kg alongwith Ahmad MOHAMMADNEZHADJAVAN (IRI) and Milad VALIZADEH (IRI) at 57kg and Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI) and Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI) at 92kg.

Georgia, too, has entered wrestlers in all 10 weight classes while Azerbaijan has two wrestlers -- Abubakr ABAKAROV (AZE) at 86kg and Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE) at 97kg.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia are not behind and have entered all 10 weight classes.

The Ranking Series offers prize money to medal winners and allows two-kilogram weight tolerance in each weight category.

All the action from the fourth and final Ranking Series, which will begin with freestyle, will be live on uww.org and UWW App. 

Full Entries:
Greco-Roman entries
Women's wrestling entries

57kg
Wanhao ZOU (CHN)
Gamal MOHAMED (EGY)
Valentin DAMOUR (FRA)
Beka BUJIASHVILI (GEO)
Roberti DINGASHVILI (GEO)
Horst LEHR (GER)
Niklas STECHELE (GER)
Milad VALIZADEH (IRI)
Ahmad MOHAMMADNEZHADJAVAN (IRI)
Abzal OKENOV (KAZ)
Mukhamed BALGABAY (KAZ)
Bekzat ALMAZ UULU (KGZ)
Almaz SMANBEKOV (KGZ)
Sunggwon KIM (KOR)
Zanabazar ZANDANBUD (MGL)
Suraj SINGH (NZL)
Gayan EKANAYAKA MUDIYANSELAGE (SRI)
Kamil KERYMOV (UKR)
Zane RICHARDS (USA)

61kg
Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB)
Arman ELOYAN (FRA)
Shota PHARTENADZE (GEO)
Gamzatgadzsi HALIDOV (HUN)
Daniel POPOV (ISR)
Ossimzhan DASTANBEK (KAZ)
Assylzhan YESSENGELDI (KAZ)
Vladimir KUDRIN (KAZ)
Ulukbek ZHOLDOSHBEKOV (KGZ)
Narankhuu NARMANDAKH (MGL)
Yaroslav HURSKYY (UKR)
Andrii DZHELEP (UKR)
Vitali ARUJAU (USA)

65kg
Islam DUDAEV (ALB)
Agustin DESTRIBATS (ARG)
Lachlan MCNEIL (CAN)
Shaohua YUAN (CHN)
Ilman MUKHTAROV (FRA)
Marwane Ahmed YEZZA (FRA)
Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA)
Edemi BOLKVADZE (GEO)
Andre CLARKE (GER)
Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV (HUN)
SUJEET (IND)
Joshua FINESILVER (ISR)
Sanzhar MUKHTAR (KAZ)
Akbar KURBANOV (KAZ)
Adlan ASKAROV (KAZ)
Ikromzhon KHADZHIMURODOV (KGZ)
Alibek OSMONOV (KGZ)
Changsu KIM (KOR)
Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL)
Divoshan CHARLES FERNANDO (SRI)
Emrah ORMANOGLU (TUR)
Nicholas LEE (USA)
 
70kg
Daniel COLES (CAN)
Amr Reda HUSSEN (EGY)
Giorgi ELBAKIDZE (GEO)
Daniel ANTAL (HUN)
Mohammad BAKHSHISHIRKOLAEI (IRI)
Amirmohammad YAZDANI (IRI)
Yegor ANCHUGIN (KAZ)
Syrbaz TALGAT (KAZ)
Sanzhar DOSZHANOV (KAZ)
Orozobek TOKTOMAMBETOV (KGZ)
Ernazar AKMATALIEV (KGZ)
Anil KARUNA PELI GEDARA (SRI)
Ivan KUSYAK (UKR)
Ihor NYKYFORUK (UKR)
Joseph MC KENNA (USA)
 
74kg
Cesar BORDEAUX (BRA)
Adam THOMSON (CAN)
Shengsong XIA (CHN)
Otari BAGAURI (GEO)
Tim MUELLER (GER)
Murad KURAMAGOMEDOV (HUN)
Mitchell FINESILVER (ISR)
Nurlan BEKZHANOV (KAZ)
Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ)
Darkhan YESSENGALI (KAZ)
Byungmin GONG (KOR)
Suldkhuu OLONBAYAR (MGL)
Cole HAWKINS (NZL)
Krisztian BIRO (ROU)
Udayantha FERNANDO (SRI)
Tymur HUDYMA (UKR)
Vadym KURYLENKO (UKR)
Julian RAMIREZ (USA)

79kg
Francisco de Deus KADIMA (ANG)
Simon MARCHL (AUT)
Saifedine ALEKMA (FRA)
Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO)
Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO)
Botond LUKACS (HUN)
Mohammad NOKHODI (IRI)
Ali SAVADKOUHI (IRI)
Daniyar KAISANOV (KAZ)
Nurdaulet KUANYSHBAY (KAZ)
Bolat SAKAYEV (KAZ)
Zaur EFENDIEV (SRB)
Muhammet AKDENIZ (TUR)
Isa DEMIR (TUR)
Ramazan SARI (TUR)
Oleksii DOMANYTSKYI (UKR)
Chandler MARSTELLER (USA)

86kg
Benjamin GREIL (AUT)
Abubakr ABAKAROV (AZE)
Bruno NICOLETTI (BRA)
Xiao SUN (CHN)
Akhmed AIBUEV (FRA)
Rakhim MAGAMADOV (FRA)
Ruslan VALIEV (FRA)
Tariel GAPHRINDASHVILI (GEO)
Lars SCHAEFLE (GER)
Dauren KURUGLIEV (GRE)
Csaba VIDA (HUN)
Patrik PUESPOEKI (HUN)
Uri KALASHNIKOV (ISR)
Yeskali DAULETKAZY (KAZ)
Nurzhan ISSAGALIYEV (KAZ)
Nurtilek KARYPBAEV (KGZ)
Gwanuk KIM (KOR)
Sebastian JEZIERZANSKI (POL)
Andrei FRANT (ROU)
Myles AMINE (SMR)
Osman GOCEN (TUR)
Fatih ERDIN (TUR)
Vasyl MYKHAILOV (UKR)
Vladyslav PRUS (UKR)
Maximus HALE (USA)
 
92kg
Adlan VISKHANOV (FRA)
Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO)
Balazs Attila JUHASZ (HUN)
Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI)
Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI)
Matthew FINESILVER (ISR)
Akezhan AITBEKOV (KAZ)
Rizabek AITMUKHAN (KAZ)
Denys SAHALIUK (UKR)
Zahid VALENCIA (USA)
 
97kg
Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE)
Nishan Preet RANDHAWA (CAN)
ALATANGALIDA (CHN)
Awusayiman HABILA (CHN)
Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO)
Erik THIELE (GER)
Vladislav BAITSAEV (HUN)
Richard VEGH (HUN)
Benjamin HONIS (ITA)
Nursultan AZOV (KAZ)
Alisher YERGALI (KAZ)
Bekzat URKIMBAY (KAZ)
Kanybek ABDULKHAIROV (KGZ)
Juhwan SEO (KOR)
Sung Yup RYU (KOR)
Mahamed ZAKARIIEV (UKR)
Murazi MCHEDLIDZE (UKR)
David MCHEDLIDZE (UKR)
Kyle SNYDER (USA)

125kg
Catriel MURIEL (ARG)
Johannes LUDESCHER (AUT)
Zhiwei DENG (CHN)
Diaaeldin ABDELMOTTALEB (EGY)
Youssif HEMIDA (EGY)
Solomon MANASHVILI (GEO)
Gennadij CUDINOVIC (GER)
Daniel LIGETI (HUN)
Abraham CONYEDO RUANO (ITA)
Omar EYUBOV (KAZ)
Yusup BATIRMURZAEV (KAZ)
Yeihyun JUNG (KOR)
Yurii IDZINSKYI (UKR)
Mason PARRIS (USA)