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UPDATED Nov. 6: News from Around the World

Wednesday, November 4, 2020 - 12:45 By United World Wrestling Press

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Yazdani, Geraei Among Champions at Iran World Team Trials

Iran held its world team trials for the 2020 World Championships. Strict protocols were followed, including PCR testing and quarantining for all participants.

In the freestyle competition, Olympic and world champion Hassan YAZDANI was dominant at 86kg, defeating Asian silver medalist Ahmad BAZRI, 11-0. Yazdani will seek his sixth world or Olympic medal. Other freestyle champions included Reza ATRI (57kg), Majid DASTAN (61kg), Amir Mohammad YAZDANI (65kg), Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI (74kg), Ali SAVADKOUHI (79kg), Kamran GHASEMPOUR (92kg), Ali SHABANI (97kg) and Amin TAHERI (125kg).

In Greco-Roman, two-time world bronze medalist Mohammad Ali GERAEI earned a spot on the Iran national team at 77kg with a victory over Pejman POSHTAM, 4-2. Other Greco-Roman champions included Poya DADMARZ (55kg), Alireza NEJATI (60kg), Meysam DELKHANI (63kg), Hossein ASADI (67kg), Amin KAVIANINEJAD (72kg), Mohammad NAGHOUSI (82kg), Hossein NOURI (87kg), Mohammad Hadi SARAVI (97kg) and Amir GHASEMI MONJAZI (130kg).     
   
Freestyle

57kg  (Winner: Reza ATRI)
Reza ATRI df. Rahman AMOUZAD KHALILI, 4-4
Alireza SARLAK df. Nader HAJAHANIA, 5-3
Rahman AMOUZAD KHALILI df. Nader HAJAGHANIA by forfeit
Alireza SARLAK df. Rahman AMOUZAD KHALILI, 10-8
Reza ATRI df. Alireza SARLAK, 2-1

61kg (Winner: Majid DASTAN)
Majid DASTAN df. Behnam EHSANPOOR, 2-1

65kg Winner: (Amir Mohammad YAZDANI)
Meysam NASIRI df. Amir Hossein MAGHSOUDI, 9-0
Morteza GHIASI df. Shayan HAMZE, 12-5
Amir Mohammad YAZDANI df. Peyman BIABANI, 3-1
Meysam NASIRI df. Peyman BIABANI, 3-1
Amir Hossein MAGHSOUDI df. Shayan HAMZE, 11-10
Amir Mohammad YAZDANI df. Morteza GHIASI, 6-6
Morteza GHIASI df. Amir Hossein MAGHSOUDI, 11-0
Amir Mohammad YAZDANI df. Meysam NASIRI, 7-4

70kg (Winner: Younes EMAMI)
Amir Hossein HOSSEINI df. Erfan ELAHI, 5-1
Younes EMAMI df. Amir Hossein HOSSEINI, 5-2

74kg (Winner: Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI)
Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI df. Saeid DADASHPOUR, 3-1
Mohammad NOKHODI df. Mohammad Sadegh FIROOZPOOR, 5-2
Jamal EBADI df. Masoud KAMARVAND, 10-10
Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI df. Mohammad Sadegh FIROOZPOOR, 4-0
Mohammad NOKHODI df. Masoud KAMARVAND, 2-1
Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI df. Jamal EBADI, 3-0
Jamal EBADI df. Mohammad NOKHODI, 3-2
Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI df. Mohammad NOKHODI, 9-4

79kg (Winner: Ali SAVADKOUHI)
Hamidreza ZARRINPEYKAR df. Peyman YARAHMADI 2-2
Ali SAVADKOUHI df. Bahman TEYMOURI, 3-0
Ali SAVADKOUHI df. Peyman YARAHMADI, 4-2
Hamidreza ZARRINPEYKAR df. Bahman TEYMOURI, 11-6
Ali SAVADKOUHI df. Hamidreza ZARRINPEYKAR, 5-4

86kg (Winner: Hassan YAZDANI)
Hassan YAZDANI tf. Ahmad BAZRI, 11-0

92kg (Winner: Kamran GHASEMPOUR)
Arashk MOHEBI df. Hossein SHAHBAZI, 5-2
Hossein JALALINEJAD df. Mohammad Hossein MIRBAGHBAN, 7-4
Kamran GHASEMPOUR df. Hossein SHAHBAZI, 4-0
Arashk MOHEBI df. Mohammad Hossein MIRBAGHBAN, 7-6
Kamran GHASEMPOUR df. Hossein JALALINEJAD, 6-0
Kamran GHASEMPOUR df. Arashk MOHEBI, 6-2
Arashk MOHEBI df. Hossein JALALINEJAD, 3-0

97kg (Winner: Ali SHABANI)
Ali SHABANI df. Mojtaba GOLEIJ, 7-3
Mohammad Hossein MOHAMMADIAN df. Danial SHARIATINIA, 5-0
Mohammad Hossein MOHAMMADIAN df. Mojtaba GOLEIJ, 2-1
Ali SHABANI df. Danial SHARIATINIA, 6-2
Ali SHABANI df. Mohammad Hossein MOHAMMADIAN, 8-4
Ali SHABANI df. Mohammad Hossein MOHAMMADIAN, 4-0

125kg (Winner: Amin TAHERI)
Amin TAHERI df. Parviz HADI, 9-4
Amir Hossein ZARE df. Yadollah MOHEBI, 4-1
Amin TAHERI df. Yadollah MOHEBI by forfeit
Amir Hossein ZARE df. Parviz HADI, 4-0
Amin TAHERI df. Amir Hossein ZARE, 2-0
Amir Hossein ZARE df. Amin TAHERI, 3-1
Amin TAHERI df. Amir Hossein ZARE, 4-3

Greco-Roman

55kg (Winner: Poya DADMARZ)
Poya DADMARZ df. Sajad ABBASPOUR, 6-2

60kg (Winner: Alireza NEJATI)
Alireza NEJATI df. Poya NASERPOUR, 9-5

63kg (Winner: Meysam Delkhani)
Meysam DELKHANI tf. Reza MARDI, 8-0

67kg (Winner: Hossein ASADI)
Hossein ASADI df. Mohammad Javad REZAEI, 3-1

72kg (Winner: Amin KAVIANINEJAD)
Ali ARSALAN tf. Ashkan SAADATIFAR, 9-0
Amin KAVIANINEJAD df. Ali ARSALAN, 1-1

77kg (Winner: Mohammad Ali GERAEI)
Mohammad Ali GERAEI df. Pejman POSHTAM, 4-2

82kg (Winner: Mohammad NAGHOUSI)
Mohammad NAGHOUSI df. Jamal ESMAEILI, 3-0

87kg (Winner Hossein NOURI)
Hossein NOURI df. Ramin TAHERI, 2-1

97kg (Winner: Mohammad Hadi SARAVI)
Mehdi BALI df. Mehdi ALIYARI, 4-1
Mohammad Hadi SARAVI df. Mehdi BALI, 5-1

130kg (Winner: Amir GHASEMI MONJAZI)
Amir GHASEMI MONJAZI df. Ali Akbar YOUSEFI, 3-1

Grand Prix of Zagreb Homepage http://gpzagrebopen.com/

Also, you are free to use press materials from the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1A7xzbWtmOx8pioVMPLrJw09hNNornIle?usp=sharing

Here are the links for live streaming

Saturday, November 7th

MAT A: https://youtu.be/FRbP0ElYCLo

MAT B: https://youtu.be/9VmGDXvXKNA

MAT C: https://youtu.be/dL3DUJzvpmw

Sunday, November 8th

MAT A: https://youtu.be/zhlq5IXR-U0

MAT B: https://youtu.be/jZJzGneQQX4

MAT C: https://youtu.be/Sa8z2zHrcHU

FINALS: https://youtu.be/DSOyIRgvJWw

IG https://www.instagram.com/gpzagrebopen/ 

>>>

Zagreb and Poland to Host International Competitions

The National Federations of Croatia and Poland are hosting international tournaments this week.

For Poland the trio of tournaments will be competed starting November 4. The tournaments will also be held early next year as Ranking Series tournaments. Entry lists are not currently available but the live stream links are below and will be updated via Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Freestyle gold-medal match results from the @pzz_official Poland Open:
57kg: Razvan KOVACS ?? df. CraciunPETRU ??, 12-2
61 kg: Ahmet DUMAN ?? df. Recep TOPAL ??, 1-1
65 kg: Krzysztof BIENKOWSKI ?? df. Ilman MUKHTAROV ??, 4-3
70 kg: Magomedmurad GADZHIEV ?? df. Haydar YUVUZ ??, 3-2
74 kg: Fazli ERYILMAZ ?? df. Maxim VASILIOGLO ??, 4-1
79 kg: Saifedine ALEKMA ?? df. Alan AMIROVS ??, 12-6
86 kg: Pitor IANULOV ?? df. Zbigniew BARANOWSKI ??, 5-1
92 kg: Erhan YAYLACI ?? df. Arif OEZEN ??, 10-0
97 kg: Suleyman KARADENIZ ?? df. Radoslaw BARAN ??, 10-0
125 kg: Robert BARAN ?? df. Daniel LIGETI ??, 3-2

The Croatian Federation is hosting the Zagreb Open, a Greco-Roman tournament that last hosted the Ranking Series in 2018. A short selection of entries can be find below with the official list expected November 6. The competition page for the event is http://gpzagrebopen.com/. 

Doninik Etlinger (Croatia)
Ivan Huklek (Croatia)
Bozo Starcevic (Croatia)
Riza Kayaalp (Turkey)
Kerem Kamal (Turkey)
Fatih Cengiz (Turkey)
Balazs Kis (Mađarska)
Viktor Nemeš (Serbia)
Mate Nemeš (Serbia)
Davor Štefanek, (Serbia)
Alexandros Kessidis (Sweden)
Ciobanu Victor (Moldova)
Aleksandrov (Bulgaria)
Milov (Bulgaria)

Livestreams for the Poland Open and Zagreb Open will be on the UWW homepage and updates on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Spanish Wrestling Federation Hosts U23, Junior Championships

The Spanish Wrestling Federation recently hosted the Spanish U23 Wrestling Championships and Spanish Junior Wrestling Championships. View links to the results below.

Spanish U23 Wrestling Championships Results

Junior Wrestling Championships Results

Iranians Compete in Premier League

Iranian wrestlers, following strict protocols, returned to competition for the first time in eight months with the return of the Iranian Premier Wrestling League.

Wrestlers, coaches, referees and organization staffs were the only people allowed in the competition hall. Everyone entering the hall was required to pass an antiseptic box and all participants received PCR tests before competitions and were placed in quarantine after testing.

Wrestling in Iran typically means excitement, sold-out arenas and thousands of cheering fans. This time the story was something else. There were no spectators at Azadi Sports Complex, which seats 12,000. Referees wore face shields and coaches wore masks.

After the United World Wrestling bureau approved existing plans to host the 2020 Senior Wrestling World Championships, the Iranian Premier Wrestling League was halted, and wrestlers were invited to the national training camp. All wrestlers and coaches were required to take PCR tests again before training. Iran's wrestling training center became a quarantine area.

"I am happy to be back again to wrestling camp," said Olympic and world champion Hassan YAZDANI.

"We didn't have training camp for about seventh months because of the coronavirus and I only followed my personal trainings," said Yazdani. "Competing in the league helped us to get more prepared. The federation has provided a quarantine place for our safety and nobody is allowed to leave the camp during the trainings. I have only one goal and it is to win at world title at the 2020 World Championships."

Sports federations in Iran are not allowed to start activities without the permission of the ministry of sport, as well as the health ministry. Wrestling was the first contact sport in Iran that started its league and national team training camps.

"We tried hard to receive permission and finally we succeed to hold league competitions and training camps under strict protocols," said 2000 Olympic champion and Iran wrestling president Alireza DABIR.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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#JapanWrestling

Otoguro to end long post-Olympic hiatus, enters All-Japan with eyes on Paris

Saturday, December 3, 2022 - 17:13 By Ken Marantz

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TOKYO (Dec. 3) --- Japan wrestling's missing man, Tokyo Olympic champion Takuto
OTOGURO, will be making his long-awaited return to the mat later this month as he begins the long journey toward defending his Olympic title.

Otoguro, who has not competed since winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Games some 17
months ago, heads the entries at freestyle 65kg for the Emperor's Cup All-Japan
Championships, the Japan Wrestling Federation announced on its website Saturday.

As Japan's Olympians gradually filtered back into action after taking time off following the
Tokyo Games in August 2021, Otoguro was the last holdout. It remains to be seen how much
rust has collected on the 2018 world champion.

For the Japanese wrestlers, the Emperor's Cup, to be held December 22-25 at Tokyo's Komazawa Gym, marks the first step in the process for qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The tournament is the first of the two domestic qualifiers for the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, where a medal in an Olympic weight class by a Japanese wrestler will secure an
automatic ticket to Paris.

Meanwhile, Yui SUSAKI, who this year completed the first-ever Grand Slam of Olympics and all four world age-group titles, will see a familiar but not-so-welcome face in the field at women's 50kg, while recently crowned world freestyle 70kg champion Taishi NARIKUNI will attempt to accomplish a feat that hasn't been done in nearly 50 years.

Mayu SHIDOCHI (JPN)Mayu SHIDOCHI (JPN) is an Olympic champion at 53kg. (Photo: UWW / Martin Gabor)

With the vast majority of the top wrestlers funneling into the Olympic weight classes, a number of highly anticipated clashes of the titans could be on tap -- none more so than between 2021 world champion Akari FUJINAMI and Tokyo Olympic champion Mayu SHIDOCHI at women's 53kg.

After the Olympics, Shidochi moved up to 55kg, where she won her third career world title Now she will be gunning for an Olympic repeat in Paris at 53kg, but has the formidable teen Fujinami standing in her way. Fujinami, who was plagued by injuries this fall, currently has a 103-match winning streak dating back to 2017.

Meanwhile, two-time Olympic champion Risako KINJO, who won the Tokyo gold at 57kg under her maiden name of KAWAI, is entered at 59kg, thus delaying her quest for Paris to the second qualifier, the Meiji Cup All-Japan Invitational Championships in June.

Kinjo gave birth to her first child in May and only returned to competition in October at the second-tier Japan Women's Open, which she won at 59kg.

In the Olympic weight classes, wrestlers who win titles at both the Emperor's Cup and Meiji Cup automatically earn a spot on the team to the Belgrade worlds. If the two are different, a playoff will be held to fill the berth.

In Kinjo's case, she will have to win the 57kg title at the Meiji Cup, then beat the Emperor's Cup champion in the playoff to make the world team and enhance her chances for a third straight Olympic gold in Paris.

Also in the field at 59kg are Himeka TOKUHARA and Yui SAKANO, who will be representing Japan at the women's World Cup next weekend in Coralville, Iowa. The majority of wrestlers, both in women's and freestyle, opted to skip the World Cup because it falls so close to the Emperor's Cup.

Yui SUSAKI (JPN)Olympic and world champion Yui SUSAKI (JPN) will face stiff competition at 50kg. (Photo: UWW / Kadir Caliskan)

Old nemesis in Susaki's path

While Susaki was making history this year by winning both the world senior and U23 titles -- the latter of which completed the set of career age-group crowns -- an old nemesis was quietly returning to the mat after an extended hiatus.

Also entered at 50kg is Yuki TANAKA, who was wrestling under her maiden name of IRIE when she became the only wrestler on the planet to beat Susaki dating back to junior high school. And she did it three times, the most recent in 2019.

Neither Susaki nor Tanaka can ignore Remina YOSHIMOTO, the 2021 world champion in Susaki's absence who has yet to beat the Olympic champion but has always given her a tough fight.

Kinjo's younger sister, Tokyo Olympic champion Yukako KAWAI, will look to gain revenge and regain the 62kg throne that she lost to collegian Nonoka OZAKI, who went on to win the senior world title in that weight class in September.

Another stacked women's weight class will be at 68kg, where world silver medalist Ami ISHII awaits world 65kg champion Miwa MORIKAWA and 2021 world 72kg gold medalist Masako FURUICHI.

In the other Olympic weight classes, world champion Tsugumi SAKURAI is the one to beat at 57kg -- with a clash against Kinjo likely to come at the Meiji Cup -- while 76kg could see a battle between world bronze medalist Yuka KAGAMI and 17-year-old world U20 champion Ayano MORO, who has gone undefeated dating back to 2017.

Taishi NARIKUNI (JPN)World champion Taishi NARIKUNI (JPN) is entered in both GR 67kg and FS 70kg. (Photo: UWW / Kadir Caliskan)

Narikuni to attempt rare double

Narikuni, an unorthodox wrestler who finally showed his potential by winning the freestyle 70kg world title in Belgrade, will attempt a historic double by also entering at Greco-Roman 67kg.

The 25-year-old, whose mother was a two-time world champion, has a goal of not just equaling his mother, but going beyond her by winning world titles in both freestyle and Greco.

It marks the first time since 1984 that a wrestler will be competing in both styles at the national championships. The last time a wrestler won titles in both was in 1973, at a time when the styles were wrestled at separate tournaments and more wrestlers competed in the two.

Standing in Narikuni's way at Greco 67kg will be defending champion and Asian bronze medalist Katsuaki ENDO.

Another Greco weight class drawing attention is 60kg, where Tokyo Olympic silver medalist and two-time former world champion Kenichiro FUMITA could meet world 55kg bronze medalist Yu SHIOTANI.

Fireworks can also be expected at freestyle 57kg, as world 61kg champion Rei HIGUCHI has dropped back down to the division in which he won a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Former world champion Yuki TAKAHASHI, who beat Higuchi in a playoff for the 57kg spot at the Tokyo Olympics, has returned after an extended hiatus. Those two can expect stiff competition from a number of young opponents, including 2021 world 61kg bronze medalist Toshiro HASEGAWA.

While coronavirus restrictions have been vastly eased in the country, the tournament field has been limited to 16 per weight class.

To simulate the Olympics as much as possible, the Olympic weight classes will be run over two days, with competition up to the semifinals on the first day and the repechage and medal match on the second. Non-Olympic classes will be completed in one day.