May 13, 2016
In a burst of athletic mastery, Hamid Soryan defeated all comers by huge margins last week to book a slot for Iran in this summer’s Olympics on his fourth and last chance.
Soryan had to overcome horrid performances in recent months at three preceding events that determine who goes to the Olympics. Last week’s competition in Istanbul was the fourth and final chance for Asian countries to get slots in the Olympics. When Soryan had to perform, he did.
In the round of 16, he defeated his Croatian opponent by a fall and a score of 9-0 in just over a minute.
In the quarterfinal, he defeated a German wrestler on a technical fall and a score of 8-0, which also took just over a minute.
In the semifinal, he dispatched his Ukrainian opponent on a technical fall and a score of 8-0, winning in one minute and 25 seconds.
That guaranteed him an Olympic slot, as the two finalists at Istanbul were both awarded tickets to the Olympics. But Soryan didn’t stop there. In the finals, he won the gold with a technical fall and another 8-0 score over American Jesse David Thielke that took all of 36 seconds.
Iran had already booked slots in 11 of the 12 weight divisions of freestyle and Greco-Roman. Soryan booked a slot in the 12th weight division, the lightest weight of 59 kilos in Greco-Roman.
His dominance in Istanbul looked like the old Soryan who has won seven World Championships in his career in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014.
But his performances in recent months had been pretty grim. Last September’s World Championships were the first opportunity to book an Olympic slot. But Soryan blew his cool in the quarterfinals, head-butting his Azerbaijani opponent. He was ranked 44th and last in that competition.
He got his next chance at an Asian qualifying round in Kazakhstan in March. He lost both his matches there and was ranked seventh of the 10 men competing.
His third chance was last month at another Asian elimination event in Mongolia. He won his first match but was then eliminated with a loss in the Round of 16, ending up ranked 11th of the 23 wrestlers.
Soryan blamed those travails on difficulty getting down to the required weight maximum.
This will be Soryan’s third trip to the Olympics. In 2008, he finished in fifth place and in 2012 won the gold by defeating Azerbaijani Rovshan Bayramov, the man he head-butted last fall.
This year’s Olympics will be played August 14-21 in Rio de Janeiro. There are 228 places for male wrestlers.