October 14, 2022
At this year’s World Wrestling Championships, Iran came second in freestyle and sixth in Greco-Roman.
This was a solid and balanced outcome. Iran, which used to trail badly in Greco-Roman, has in recent years fielded a much more competitive team.
This can perhaps be seen best when it is noted that the USA came in first in freestyle, but just 18th in Greco-Roman, while Serbia, which came in first in Greco-Roman, ranked just 15th in freestyle.
In freestyle, the USA was surprisingly dominant. Every one of its grapplers in all 10 weight divisions ranked in the top 10 and scored points for the team. USA totaled 198 points, with Iran scoring 150 for second place and Japan totaling 70 points for a very distant third ranking. The Japanese took two gold medals, but no silver or bronze.
Iranian Mohammad Nokhodi made the finals in the 79-kilo division of freestyle. For the second year in a row, he surprised few by taking silver as he went down to American Jordan Burroughs, who crumpled the Iranian with his signature double-leg takedown and a 4-2 score.
In the 12 years since Burroughs turned pro in 2011, he has won seven gold medals four of them by defeating Iranians in the finals one silver and two bronzes. He had a stunning defeat in 2016 and emerged without a medal. The 2020 Worlds were canceled for Covid. Burroughs is expected to compete for two more years.
Here is how the Iranians did in this year’s freestyle World Championships:
57 kilos—lost in qualifiers
61 kilos—Reza Atri-Nagharchi, silver
65 kilos—Rahman Amouzad, gold
70 kilos—lost in qualifiers
74 kilos—Yunes Emami, bronze
79 kilos—Mohammad Nokhodi, silver
86 kilos—Hassan Yazdani, silver
92 kilos—Kamran Qasempur, gold
97 kilos—5th place
125 kilos—Amir-Hossain Zare, bronze
Over the decades, the Iranian freestyle team has ranked first five times, the most recent being 2013. It has ranked second seven times, including this year. And it has ranked third 14 times, including last year.
In Greco-Roman, Iran won no golds, but got two silvers with Mohammad-Reza Geraei at 67 kilos and Amin Mirzazadeh at 125 kilos and one bronze won by Mohammad-Hadi Saravi at 97 kilos.
The World Championships are held annually, except that in Olympic years the Olympics substitute for the World Championships.
