Azimi Tabbed to Head Guatemala's CARDA

Thursday, March 10, 2022 - 19:15 By United World Wrestling Press

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (March 9) --- The "High Performance and Development Center for the Americas" recently reopened in the Guatemalan capital after the facility was temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Upon the center's highly-anticipated reopening, United World Wrestling named 44-year-old Reza AZIMI as the CARDA's (Spanish acronym) new head coach.

Azimi, who originally hails from Iran, brings loads of high-level experience as a coach and a competitor into Guatemala. He had an outstanding career as an athlete from 1993-'97, winning medals at the U17, U20, and U23 World Championships.

Azimi's success followed into his coach career. He successfully performed his duties in Iran, Nicaragua and India.
•   Coached Iran's National Team from 2013-'15.
•   Coached Nicaragua's National Team in 2017.
•   Coached India's National Team and Punjab's Team in 2020-'21.

Mr. Francisco Lee, President of UWW Americas, welcomed Azimi to Guatemala with open arms. Upon Azimi's arrival. Mr. Lee highlighted the sports cooperation between the National Federations of Iran and Guatemala and wished the new coach success.

#WrestleZagreb

WATCH: 10 Zagreb Open freestyle finals

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 - 14:31 By Eric Olanowski

ZAGREB, Croatia (February 8) -- The first Ranking Series event of the season, the Zagreb Open, just wrapped up in the Croatian capital. Wrestlers used the point-based competition to earn points towards their seeds at the five Continental Championships and Belgrade World Championships.

The United States topped the team standings with 174 points, while Iran and Azerbaijan rounded out the top three.

The Stars and Stripes had wrestlers win medals in seven of ten weight classes--including gold-medal performances from Alec William PANTALEO (USA), Jason Michael NOLF (USA), Kollin Raymond MOORE (USA) and Kyle Frederick SNYDER (USA) at 70kg, 74kg, 92kg and 97kg, respectively.

Iran finished in second place with 140 points, 34 points behind the United States, thanks to bracket winners Reza Ahmadali ATRINAGHARCHI (IRI), Ali Bakhtiar SAVADKOUHI (IRI), Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI (IRI) and Amir Hossein Abbas ZARE (IRI).

Aliabbas RZAZADE (AZE) won gold at 57kg and helped Azerbaijan close out the competition in the third position. They had seven medalists--one gold, two silver and four bronze medals--and finished with 135 points.

Here are the 10 freestyle finals from Zagreb.

57kg Aliabbas RZAZADE (AZE) df. Yuto NISHIUCHI (JPN), 2-0

61kg: Reza Ahmadali ATRINAGHARCHI (IRI) df. Narankhuu NARMANDAKH (MGL), via fall

65kg: Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL) df. Joseph Christopher MC KENNA (USA), 4-1

70kg Alec William PANTALEO (USA) df. Haji ALIYEV (AZE), 5-2

74kg: Jason Michael NOLF (USA) df. Yones Aliakbar EMAMICHOGHAEI (IRI), 3-3

79kg: Ali Bakhtiar SAVADKOUHI (IRI) df. Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO), 2-1

86kg: Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI (IRI) df. Hayato ISHIGURO (JPN), 13-2

92kg: Kollin Raymond MOORE (USA) df. Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO), 4-3

97kg: Kyle Frederick SNYDER (USA) df. Amirali Hamid AZARPIRA (IRI), 3-0

125kg: Amir Hossein Abbas ZARE (IRI) df. Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI (AZE), via injury default