#Zagreb2019

Iran Enters Young Team into Deep Zagreb Open Field

Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - 17:07 By Eric Olanowski

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ZAGREB, Croatia (January 6) – Iran will be sending a full team to the Zagreb Open, but it surely won’t be the same team they'll be sending to Astana, Kazakhstan for the 2019 World Championships. 

Every wrestler Iran registered for the first Ranking Series event of the year will be making their senior-level international debuts, and only Abolfazl SEYEDMAHDAVI, who finished in eighth place at the 2019 Takhti Cup in Tehran, Iran, has wrestled domestically on the senior-level. 

Though it’s an extremely young team, eight of the ten Iranian wrestlers bring age-group world-level experience into this weekend, with six of those wrestlers boasting world championship medals on their resumes.

The trio of cadet world champions, Poya DAD MARZ (55kg), Mohsen MADHANI (63kg), and Yousef HOSSEINVAND FATHI (72kg) lead the lower half of the Iranian lineup, while 2018 U23 world bronze medalist Aliakbar YOUSOFIAHMADCHALI (130kg) and 2018 cadet world bronze medalist Mohammad NAGHOUSI (77kg) close out the back half of their youthful lineup. 

You can watch the young Iranian squad compete at the Zagreb Open on Saturday (February 9), live on www.unitedworldwrestling.org.

Iran’s Zagreb Open Lineup 
55kg - Poya DAD MARZ – 2017 junior world champion 
60kg - Milad REZANEZHAD HOSSEINVAND – 2017 cadet world championships - 17th place 
63kg-  Mohsen MADHANI – 2017 cadet world champion 
67kg - Mohammad Reza Hojatollah MOKHTARI – 2016 cadet world runner-up 
72kg - Yousef Hajiali HOSSEINVAND FATHI – 2016 cadet world champion, 2018 junior world bronze
77kg - Mohammad Aziz NAGHOUSI – 2018 cadet world bronze medalist
82kg - Hosein FOROUZANDEH GHOJEHBEIGLOU – 2018 junior world championships - 8th place 
87kg - Hasan FOROUZANDEH GHOJEHBEIGLOU
97kg - Abolfazl Naser SEYEDMAHDAVI – 2019 Takhti Cup -  8th place 
130kg - Aliakbar Hossein YOUSOFIAHMADCHALI – 2018 U23 world bronze

#development

Bulgaria hosts OLYMP to increase media literacy

Wednesday, October 15, 2025 - 09:49 By United World Wrestling Press

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BULGARIA (October 15) -- Bulgaria hosted a seminar on the OLYMP project, funded by the European Union's Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme, at Diana National Wrestling Hall on October 9. The project aims to improve the media literacy of athletes, coaches, and sports managers.

The seminar was led by Georgi BANOV, one of the doyens of Bulgarian sports journalism, who has covered 14 Olympic Games in winter and summer sports, as well as a number of world and European Championships in wrestling, weightlifting, athletics, biathlon, and more.

The seminar was organized for the athletes of the national wrestling teams. The event was hosted by Belcho GORANOV, Chairman of the Ethics and Legal Commission of the United World Wrestling (UWW) and project manager on behalf of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by bgolympic (@bgolympic)

The team emphasized that the seminar is part of a six-month cycle of informal training under the OLYMP project, which covers a total of 110 young athletes. The program includes weekly sessions in small groups focusing on media and information literacy, critical thinking and analytical skills, as well as developing the participants' confidence and ability to defend their positions with reasoned arguments.

The weekly classes will include readings and discussions on biographies, novels, sports magazines, as well as topics related to sports management and economics. Additional informal activities -- meetings with prominent athletes and film screenings -- will be held twice a month, with each event featuring moderated debates and practical challenges for “fact checking” and ethical behavior on social media.

Banov drew the athletes' attention to how to verify the information they receive through social media and other sources, how to recognize fake news, how to search for reliable information, and how to use social networks correctly, avoiding hate speech.

At the end of the media literacy program, a combined (formal and informal) assessment is planned – short tests and case studies, observation of group work, participant portfolios, and satisfaction surveys—to report on the specific results of the training and its impact on the engagement of young athletes in public life.

Read more on BOC website