Iranian freestyle wrestlers have collected three gold medals at the 19th Asian Games in China, raising the country’s medal tally at the multinational sports event.
Hassan Yazdani Charati downed Indian counterpart Deepak Punia 10-0 in the finale of men’s 86-kilogram weight division at the Lin’an Sports Culture & Exhibition Center in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou on Saturday, and proudly took the top honor.
This came after Yones Emami Choghaei started the men’s 74-kilogram weight class contests with a 7-2 win over Kyrgyzstan’s Orozbek Toktomambetov.
He then overcame Chinese contestant Lu Feng 10-2 and Tajik opponent Magomet Evloev 9-3, before reaching the final.
Emami Choghaei defeated Kirin Kinoshita of Japan 9-0 to win the gold medal.
Additionally, Amir Hossein Zare’ prevailed over Mongolia’s Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur 7-0 in the final match of men’s 125-kilogram weight section, and get anthoer gold medal for Iran.
Mojtaba Goleij was also defeated against Russian-born Bahraini wrestler Akhmed Tazhudinov 1-6 in the final bout of the men’s 97-kilogram class, and earned the silver medal.
A record high of nearly 12,500 athletes from 45 countries and territories compete across 40 sports in the prestigious continental multi-sport event.
Iran has sent 289 male and female athletes to the Games in 34 sports events.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far collected a total of 52 medals – thirteen golds, twenty silvers, and nineteen bronzes – at the Asian Games, and currently stands in the 7th place.
China leads the standings with 375 medals, including 197 golds. Japan is in the second slot with 180 medals, among them 49 golds, while South Korean athletes rank third, having won 39 golds and 186 medals in total.
