Winning 7 gold medals in 10 weight categories, IranFreestyle wrestling team won 2019 Asian Championships.

In first day, Two-time former world champion Reza YAZDANI(IRI) returned from an absence of over two years to win the 97kg gold with acome-from-behind win of his own. He has some unfinished business to attend toat the Tokyo Olympics.

Yazdani twice missed out on Olympic medal, at London 2012and Rio 2016, after suffering injuries during the competition, and he seesTokyo as his chance for redemption.

"Unfortunately, I lost two times at the Olympics because Iwas injured," Yazdani said. "Now I want to make up for that in Tokyo in 2020. Itried to keep myself fit, watch my weight and train for wrestling, and now I'mback on the national team."

In the final, Yazdani trailed ULZIISAIKHAN Batzul (MGL) 4-2in the second period when the Mongolian ran out of gas. Yazdani took advantageand went on to win 7-4, adding to the Asian titles he won in 2010 and 2016.

"The match is six minutes," said Yazdani, a three-time AsianGames champion. "Sometimes I go down [in the score], and sometimes I go up. Iam always training to be in better condition."

Iran's other golds came from Reza ATRINAGARCHI (IRI) at 57kgand Bahman TEYMOURI (IRI) at 70kg.

Atrinagarchi scored all of his points in the second periodin posting a 9-3 victory over defending champion KANG Kumsong (PRK), who haddefeated former world champion Yuki TAKAHASHI (JPN) in the semifinals.

Teymouri, a 2017 bronze medalist, earned his first Asiangold with a sedate 3-0 win in the 79kg final over Parveen RANA (IND). Teymouriscored a first-period takedown, then received a penalty point in the second.

Peiman BIABANI (IRI) at 65kg and Yones EMAMICHOGAEI (IRI) at70kg added to the Iranian medal tally by winning bronzes.

In second day competitions, Iran capped its domination ofthe freestyle competition at the Asian Championships by hauling in four of thefive gold medals at stake on the second day—twice denying host China a title inthe process.

And a gritty performance by a teenager making his seniordebut assured that every member of the Iranian team will be heading home with amedal.  

China's bid to stop the Iranian juggernaut fizzled out whenworld silver medalist DENG Zhiwei (CHN) fell 2-1 in the 125kg final to YadollahMOHEBI (IRI) in the last bout of the night at Xi'an's Xidian UniversityGymnasium.

That was the same score by which Behnam EHSANPOOR (IRI) hadedged LIU Minghu (CHN) at 61kg in the first final to regain the Asian title hewon two years ago in New Delhi.

Iran's other gold medals were seized by world U23 championKamran GHASEMPOUR (IRI) at 86kg and world bronze medalist AlirezaKARIMIMACHIANI (IRI) at 92kg, both of whom were hardly challenged during thecompetition and finished up with technical fall victories in the finals.

With seven golds and three bronzes, Iran easily won the teamcompetition with 220 points. India, with one gold, three silvers and fourbronzes, was second at 155, followed by Kazakhstan, which had 129 afterfinishing with two golds, a silver and two bronzes.

Meanwhile, Mohammad NOKHODILARIMI (IRI) avoided the prospectof being the only Iranian to head home without a medal when he put on a furiouscomeback to defeat Ilgiz DZHAKYPBEKOV (KGZ), 9-8, in a bronze-medal match at74kg.

Dzhakypbekov built up a 6-1 lead, and was still ahead oncriteria when the 18-year-old Nokhodilarimi, a 2o17 world cadet bronzemedalist, stormed back to make it 8-8 in the final minute. The Iranian stayedon the attack and drove out a fatigued Dzhakypbekov for the decisive point with:33 left.

"If I lost, I would have been depressed," saidNokhodilarimi, who seemed to be sparked by a dressing down from his coachbetween periods.

In the 61kg final, China's Liu, a world U23 bronze medalist,received an activity clock point for the lone score of the first period. But inthe second period, Ehsanpoor scored with a single-leg takedown, and that heldup for the gold.

At 86kg, Ghasempour totally dominated AligarizhiGAMIDGADZHIEV (KGZ), building up a 7-0 lead with three takedowns in the firstperiod, then finishing up a 10-0 technical fall at the 4:10 mark.

Karimimachiani didn't need that long to put away Viky VIKY(IND) at 92kg, scoring four takedowns before ending the match at 2:28 with aroll that made it 11-0.

In the night's finale, Deng started out just like compatriotLiu, gaining an activity point to lead 1-0 going into the second period. ButMohebi forced the Chinese out for a point that put him ahead on criteria, thenreceived an activity point himself for the 2-1 victory.

Day 1 Results

Freestyle

57kg (12 entries)

Gold – Reza ATRINAGARCHI (IRI) df. KANG Kumsong (PRK), 9-3

Bronze – Makhmudjon SHAVKATOV (UZB) df. Hikmatullo VOHIDOV(TJK), 4-0

Bronze – Yuki TAKAHASHI (JPN) df. Kumar RAVI (IND), 5-3

65kg (16 entries)

Gold – Bajrang BAJRANG (IND) df. Sayatbek OKASSOV (KAZ),12-7

Bronze – KIM Han Song (PRK) df. Haji Mohamad ALI (BRN) byTF, 10-0, :46

Bronze – Peiman BIABANI (IRI) df. Sirojiddin KHASANOV (UZB),3-2

70kg (16 entries)

Gold – Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ) df. Kojiro SHIGA (JPN), 9-0

Bronze – YUAN Shaohua (CHN) df. Abdullrahman IBRAHIM (QAT)by TF, 10-0, :34

Bronze – Yones EMAMICHOGAEI (IRI) df. Balyr BORJAKOV (TKM)by TF, 11-0, 4:04

79kg (10 entries)

Gold – Bahman TEYMOURI (IRI) df. Parveen RANA (IND), 3-0

Bronze – Oibek NASIROV (KGZ) df. LIN Zeping (CHN) by Fall,2:50 (2-1)

Bronze – Galymzhan USSERBAYEV (KAZ) df. Yuta ABE (JPN), 6-0

97kg (11 entries)

Gold – Reza YAZDANI (IRI) df. Batzul ULZIISAIKHAN (MGL), 7-4

Bronze – Satywart KADIAN (IND) df. GAO Haobin (CHN), 8-2

Bronze – Alisher YERGALI (KAZ) df. Magomed MUSAEV (KGZ), 6-2

Day 2 results

Freestyle

61kg (14 entries)

Gold – Behnam EHSANPOOR (IRI) df. LIU Minghu (CHN), 2-1

Bronze – Rahul AWARE (IND) df. KIM Jincheol (KOR), 9-2

Bronze – Yudai FUJITA (JPN) df. Dzhamshed SHARIFOV (TJK),3-1

74kg (13 entries)

Gold – Daniyar KAISANOV (KAZ) df. Amit DHANKHAR (IND), 5-0

Bronze – Mohammad NOKHODILARIMI (IRI) df. Ilgiz DZHAKYPBEKOV(KGZ), 9-8

Bronze – Olgenbayar BATSUURI (MGL) df. Adam BATIROV (BRN) byDefault

86kg (15 entries)

Gold – Kamran GHASEMPOUR (IRI) df. Aligarizhi GAMIDGADZHIEV(KGZ) by TF, 10-0, 4:10

Bronze – Gankhuyag GANBAATAR (MGL) df. Abdurasul VAKHOBOV(UZB), 4-0

Bronze – Deepak PUNIA (IND) df. Bakhodur KODIROV (TJK), 8-2

92kg (11 entries)

Gold – Alireza KARIMIMACHIANI (IRI) df. Viky VIKY (IND) byTF, 11-0, 2:29

Bronze – Atsushi MATSUMOTO (JPN) df. Azizbek SOLIEV (UZB),9-2

Bronze – SUN Xiao (CHN) df. Muhammad INAM (PAK) by Default

125kg (11 entries)

Gold – Yadollah MOHEBI (IRI) df. DENG Zhiwei (CHN), 2-1

Bronze – KIM Donghwan (KOR) df. Khasanboy RAKHIMOV (UZB) byFall, 4:41 (4-1)

Bronze – Sumit SUMIT (IND) df. Farkhod ANAKULOV (TJK), 8-2

Freestyle Team Standings

Gold – Iran, 220 points (7 gold-0 silver-3 bronze)

Silver – India, 155 (1-3-4)

Bronze – Kazakhstan, 129 (2-1-2)