According to Mehr news agency, the country’s championship freestyle wrestling and the first stage of the selection cycle of the national team started yesterday in Tehran’s 7th Tir Martyrs Hall, during which the finalists of the first five weights were determined. According to the tournament schedule, the final matches of the first five weights and the preliminary matches of 61, 70, 79, 92 and 125 kg weights will be held today (Thursday).
But the first day’s competition had different sides. In the competition of the first five weights, 187 wrestlers went on the scale, and the weight of 86 kg was the busiest weight of the first day with 42 wrestlers. 36 people weighed 57 kg, 39 people weighed 65 and 79 kg, and 31 people weighed 97 kg.
The most important event of the first day was the absence of Pejman Darskar, the head coach of the national free wrestling team, in the Shahada hall of the seventh day of Tir. National team manager Mohsen Kaveh, Ehsan Amini and Abazar Eslami were present as technical supervisors. He is supposed to closely watch the second day’s competitions.
One of the important events of the first day was the withdrawal of Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian, the world bronze medalist and Iran’s national team player in the Belgrade Olympic and World Championships. It is said that he missed these competitions due to injury. Mohammadian’s name was in the initial list of 97 kg, but he did not appear on the mat for the fight against Mohammad Mehdi Jafari from Kermanshah.
Amirhossein Firozpour, the gold medalist of the world’s hopes, was the other one who withdrew from the competition. He submitted his injury certificate to the wrestling federation.
With the decision of the headquarters to fight against Corona, the competitions were held without spectators, but there were no signs of compliance with the health guidelines recommended by the headquarters to fight against Corona.
Another noteworthy point of the tournament was the presence of 4 world wrestling champions in the seventh hall of Tir. Hassan Rahimi, Mustafa Hossein Khani, Majid Khodaei and Alireza Rezaei were present as coaches in the competition hall. Frequent protests against the referees’ judgments were also notable events in the first five weights of the competition.
Defeat of Iman Sadeghi and Mohammad Ali Amouzad in 65 kg weight, Mohammad Sadegh Firozpour and Irfan Elahi in 74 kg weight, Ezzat Elah Akbari in 86 kg weight and Ahmad Bazari and Ali Shabani in 97 kg weight and Alireza Sarlak, Alireza Karimi and Mojtabi Gilij qualified for the meet. The finals of 57, 86 and 97 kg weights were among the other notable points of these competitions on the first day.
According to the process of the selection cycle, the medal winners of the 2022 World Championships in Belgrade were exempted from participating in this period. The 2nd to 5th place finishers of the country’s championship will qualify for the Pahlavan Takhti World Cup.
According to the announcement of the technical staff, the top players of the country’s freestyle wrestling championship will be eligible to participate in the 2023 Asian Championship.