#WrestleZagreb

WATCH: 10 Zagreb Open freestyle finals

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 - 14:31 By Eric Olanowski

ZAGREB, Croatia (February 8) -- The first Ranking Series event of the season, the Zagreb Open, just wrapped up in the Croatian capital. Wrestlers used the point-based competition to earn points towards their seeds at the five Continental Championships and Belgrade World Championships.

The United States topped the team standings with 174 points, while Iran and Azerbaijan rounded out the top three.

The Stars and Stripes had wrestlers win medals in seven of ten weight classes--including gold-medal performances from Alec William PANTALEO (USA), Jason Michael NOLF (USA), Kollin Raymond MOORE (USA) and Kyle Frederick SNYDER (USA) at 70kg, 74kg, 92kg and 97kg, respectively.

Iran finished in second place with 140 points, 34 points behind the United States, thanks to bracket winners Reza Ahmadali ATRINAGHARCHI (IRI), Ali Bakhtiar SAVADKOUHI (IRI), Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI (IRI) and Amir Hossein Abbas ZARE (IRI).

Aliabbas RZAZADE (AZE) won gold at 57kg and helped Azerbaijan close out the competition in the third position. They had seven medalists--one gold, two silver and four bronze medals--and finished with 135 points.

Here are the 10 freestyle finals from Zagreb.

57kg Aliabbas RZAZADE (AZE) df. Yuto NISHIUCHI (JPN), 2-0

61kg: Reza Ahmadali ATRINAGHARCHI (IRI) df. Narankhuu NARMANDAKH (MGL), via fall

65kg: Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL) df. Joseph Christopher MC KENNA (USA), 4-1

70kg Alec William PANTALEO (USA) df. Haji ALIYEV (AZE), 5-2

74kg: Jason Michael NOLF (USA) df. Yones Aliakbar EMAMICHOGHAEI (IRI), 3-3

79kg: Ali Bakhtiar SAVADKOUHI (IRI) df. Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO), 2-1

86kg: Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI (IRI) df. Hayato ISHIGURO (JPN), 13-2

92kg: Kollin Raymond MOORE (USA) df. Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO), 4-3

97kg: Kyle Frederick SNYDER (USA) df. Amirali Hamid AZARPIRA (IRI), 3-0

125kg: Amir Hossein Abbas ZARE (IRI) df. Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI (AZE), via injury default

#JapanWrestling

Ozaki, Tanabe take special wrestling trip to Iran

Monday, April 28, 2025 - 12:22 By Vinay Siwach

TEHRAN, Iran (April 28) — While most Paris Olympic medalist from Japan are preparing for June’s Meiji Cup at their base universities in Japan, world champion Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) and Asian champion Kaisei TANABE (JPN) have managed to squeeze in a educational trip to Iran despite their busy training schedule.

Ozaki, who won bronze medal at the Paris Olympics at 68kg, returned to international competition recently won a silver medal at 62kg at the Asian Championships in March. She is expected to compete at the Meiji Cup which will be held in Tokyo from June 19 to 22.

“I am in Iran right now,” Ozaki told UWW. “It’s a place I always wanted to visit. I am really happy.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Olympic Wrestling (@unitedworldwrestling)

Ozaki visited Tehran as part of her education trip and exchanged wrestling notes with few of the Iranian wrestlers who are part of the team.

“Iran has many world and Olympic champions and I wanted to study wrestling here,” she said. “I stayed for a week and this experience will help me learn me about wrestling.”

Nonoka OZAKI (JPN), left, and Kaisei TANABE (JPN), third from left, in Iran. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari)

Tanabe won the gold medal at the Asian Championships at 65kg and also attended the training camp with Iran wrestlers.

The Nippon Sports Science University wrestler is also expected to compete at the Meiji Cup and if he wins, he will book his ticket to the World Championships in September where he can meet Paris Olympic silver medalist Rahman AMOUZAD (IRI) who was present at the training camp in Tehran.

Amouzad lost the 65kg final in Paris to Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN) who is a teammate of Tanabe at NSSU.