Tehran, Iran, June 13
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran's national freestyle wrestling team won the world cup for the fifth time in a row after beating the Russian team 5-3 in the finals.
Having defeated the host, USA, in the semi-finals, Iran started the finals with Hassan Rahimi, who won his bout in the 57kg class, IRIB news agency reported June 13.
Masoud Esmailpour brought in Iran's second win in the 61kg class, while Meysam Nasiri lost to his Russian opponent in the 65 kg category.
After that, Mostafa Hosseinkhani and Hassan Yazdani left the mat with victories in the 70 and 74kg classes to make it 4-1 in favor of Iran.
But two back-to-back defeats for Iran in the 86 and 97kg weight classes made the last bout in the 125kg extremely vital. Komeil Ghasemi beat his Russian rival, giving Iran its seventh world cup in the history of Iranian wrestling.
Meanwhile, Georgia defeated the USA in the battle for the last podium spot and became third.
Iran started the games with a 5-3 victory over Azerbaijan and then crushed India 8-0.