Bulldozer Without Brakes

The advantage is for medalists not every member Yazdani had to beat Azarpira twice in a row to make the team this year. And Azarpira will likely have to do the same to make the team next year. Seems fair

Yazdani did amazing and deserves a lot of credit He wins his 11th world / Olympic medal at 97kg on his worlds debut at 97kg, and was 0.1 second away from reaching the finals He will have the advantage in national trials now. Azarpira needs to reach another level to get on the team again by 2028

He’s good but nothing to suggest he’ll beat Zare and no. But Javan has done well to win silver again

Zare techs Wyatt easily after Wyatt looked very good this morning Sina and Ghasempour are out Ahmad Javan somehow makes the world finals again, winning 10-9, 3-2, and 3-1, after looking gassed 1 minute into his first match. He rematches Uguev in the final

Ref gave passivity point but it was white paddled so they discussed it and instead he got a warning for passivity

17 year old Ferasati (U17 world champion) beat 21 year old Yousefi (U23 world champion) 12-6 today Crazy win over a current U23 world champion. Ferasati is a serious prospect.

It’s not a factor lol but it’s fun trivia.

Yeah, I said multiple soviet teams beat that record. But none since the dissolution of the USSR

The freestyle draws have just been released Terrible draws for most Iranians except for Nokhodi and Zare

More team title trivia: worlds returned to 10 weight classes in 2018. Since then, no other country has medaled in 9/10 weight classes in Greco. Although worlds also had 10 weight classes between 1969-1996, and multiple soviet teams beat this record before the USSR’s dissolution in 1991 (but Russia as a country never achieved 9/10 medals in GR). Therefore, this Iranian Greco team is arguably the best Greco Roman team in the 10 weight era since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

More trivia: this is the first time Iran has won the Greco Roman team title for two years in a row. The only other countries who have done this are Russia/USSR, Japan and Azerbaijan Iran has never won the freestyle team title two years in a row

More trivia: Iran reached the finals in 7/10 weight classes, the most ever for freestyle or Greco

The USA won the Greco Roman team title in 2007.

For the record, there is an argument to be made that his kid is the best Greco Roman wrestler in the USA right now. And he is the only greco wrestler who won any team title points for the USA this year. Without his kid, team USA would have picked up ZERO (0) team title points for Greco.

More trivia: Esmaeili becomes only the fourth Iranian wrestler (and the second Greco Roman wrestler) ever to win three titles in a row, after Rasoul Khadem and Movahed for FS and Hamid Sourian for GR

Hadi Saravi has now won 7 world/Olympic medals. Unless I am missing someone, that’s the joint highest for any Iranian Greco wrestler along with Hamid Sourian (although Sourian won 7 golds…) That puts Saravi as joint #1 Iranian GR wrestler of all time in number of medals and #2 overall

Yes true, they are well matched since Jafarov’s parterre defence is very well. But Jafarov has never scored any technical points against Esmaeili in three matches. That’s pretty bad news for him.

I actually remember that match happening. Agree it was obvious back then that Esmaeili could be special. Didn’t know about Gomi though. Now that’s a bad draw lol.

Rasoul Khadem is very petty, didn’t congratulate the Iranian Greco team at all and instead limited comments on his posts he is ashamed that Dabir is leading Iranian wrestling through a golden age

The greats win when they have to, and that’s what Esmaeili does. if the rules were different, Esmaeili would wrestle differently too…

Dabir (former world and Olympic champ and current head of IWF) was angry with the refereeing in Saravi’s match against Sargsian

Watch the second period again, Oskou was being pushed back and couldn’t control centre, unfortunately. and Saravi didn’t get the points because there was a timekeeping error so the first period has finished before that move, not because it wasn’t a scoring move. Several timekeeping errors yesterday, annoying. Our seeds and draws were largely very good. Oskou was on the opposite side to Amoyan and Kutuzov and Gutu. Ahmadi and Ahmadi Vafa also had very good draws.

This is likely Iran’s best ever Greco Roman team and one of the best GR teams from any country in recent decades. Gold medal threats at every single weight class. Medals in 10/10 weights is still possible. The team is insanely young as well: Ahmadi 20, Ahmadi Vafa 21, Keshtkar 25, Esmaeili 23, Sohrabi 23, Oskou 24 / Abdevali 21, Farokhi 24, Mohmadi 24, Saravi 28, and Hedayati 22. Most of them won’t even be in their prime yet. The finals didn’t go as planned. But Ahmadi just turned 20 and lost to a 5x champ veteran after dominating everyone else. Azizli is retiring and Ahmadi has 10+ years to compete at 55kg. Ahmadi Vafa’s rate of improvement has been incredible (from 17th in 2025 to 2nd in 2026). I didn’t think he would beat Ganiev - what a great win. He got caught by Gomi, no shame in that. He looks good for 2028 and we can no longer say 60kg is our weakest weight class. Oskou is incredible in parterre but weak at generating offence on the feet or controlling centre - which creates a risk that he loses both passivity points (as he did against Suleymanov). Oskou did well, medalled in a weight we didn’t medal in last year. But I think Abdevali will be our rep from next year (his rate of growth has also been impressive). Only Saravi’s loss upset me but his run can’t last forever. Sargsian looked a lot stronger and prepared for Saravi this year. Wrestling is unpredictable, the timekeepers messed up and the last point in the first period didn’t count as a result. 97kg is a minefield even without Rosillo, Aleskanyan and Evloev. Maskevich, Milov, Sarsgian are all in great form. Saravi will be back.

Why are you attacking someone’s son? With their sexuality no less. What a weird comment.

I am in Kazakhstan. You are wrong. The arena was very busy. Incredible turnout especially for day 1 Greco. Much busier than U23 worlds ever was in the USA.