Team Iran will look to make some noise at the world championships in Belgrade this year. Last year the team had good results which included a gold medal finish from Rahman Amouzad (65kg) as well as silvers from Hassan Yazdani (86kg), Reza Atri (61kg), and Mohammad Nokhodi (79kg).
Kamran Ghasempour also won gold at the world championships last year defeating J’den Cox however, Ghasempour will not be on the team for worlds this year due to injury.
Team Iran:
57kg- Milad Valizadeh
61kg- Reza Atri
65kg- Rahman Amouzad
70kg- Amir Yazdani
74kg- Yones Emami
79kg- Mohammad Nokhodi
86kg- Hassan Yazdani
92kg- Amirali Azarpira
97kg- Mojtaba Goleij
125- Amir Zare
Overview:
The main guys on this team that are projected to medal are Reza Atri, Rahman Amouzad, Yones Emami, Mohammad Nokhodi, Hassan Yazdani, Amir Zare.
All of the other wrestlers on the lineup have a fighting chance, but it will only get more difficult to improve on last years performance.
Rahman Amouzad, the reigning world champion at 65kg, however there is one name who is back and it’s Olympic champion Takuto Otoguro of Japan. Could Amouzad get it done, sure, but at this point in time Otoguro is a big favorite to regain his crown at 65kg.
Mohammad Nokhodi won a silver medal the past two years at the world championships losing to Jordan Burroughs both times. Since Jordan is not the rep for the United States this year and Nokhodi already has a win over Marsteller maybe this could be his first world title run.
Hassan Yazdani will most likely cruise into the world finals unless he meets David Taylor early or something goes horrificly wrong. With how his matches vs Taylor have gone historically he will not be the favorite, but he did get it done in 2021 so who knows maybe we could see Yazdani win another gold medal.
Amir Zare was a bronze medalist at the world championships last year. He was defeated by Taha Akgul in the semifinals where he previously defeated Akgul the year before. With Steveson, Akgul, Petriashvili, and Munkhtur in the weight it will be a hard task to get back on top of the podium.
