TEHRAN, Feb. 01 (MNA) – The first day of Paris Grand Prix international wrestling tournament had two silvers and single bronze for Iran.



Masoud Esmaeilpour, wrestling down a category, 65kg, with poor preparation, got a rest draw in the first round; in second round, Esmaeilpour crashed French Sarkis Gregorian 10-0 in a brilliant performance. In quarterfinals, he won Hungarian wrestler Stefan Nemeth with a similar 10-0 result, and in semifinals, defeated Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev, but lost 3-6 to Azerbaijan’s Dagistani wrestler Magomed Muslimov in final to finish with a silver. Azerbaijna’s Haji Aliyev and American Brent Metcalf shared the bornze in 65kg category.


Iran’s world bronze medalist Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian finished with another silver behind Sharifov. Mohammadian who was a new comer in category 97kg, pinned Zhao Cheng from China 11-0 and defeated French Miller 10-0 to qualify for semifinals where he won Ukrainian European gold medalist Powel Olynyk 6-2. In final match, Mohammadian stormed in a breathtaking fight with Sharif Sharifov, but defeated 4-6 to find a silver medal.


Iran’s Mohammad Maktabdar grabbed a bronze medal at 74kg with two consecutive wins against French werstlers and a 3-0 defeat conceded to Uzbek Reshit Kurbanov, world and Aisan bronze medalist. To win bronze, Maktabdar defeated Kristian Brzeczkowski from Poland to win the bronze medal.


Junior world champ Khadjiev, meanwhile, fell in the semifinals to Osman ISAKOV (RUS), 5-5, on criteria but stormed back for a bronze medal by pinning Giorgi TIGISHVILI (GEO) at 4:39 of their third-place bout.


In second and final day of the tournament, Iran’s Iman Sadeqi in 61kg category, Hassan Yazdani in 70kg and Alireza Karimi in 86kg categories will meet their challenges.


By Mehr News Agency






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