#WrestleAlmaty

Watch: Bolat Turlykhanov Cup ten freestyle finals

By Vinay Siwach

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (June 8) -- The Bolat Turlykhanov Cup marked the second Ranking Series event of the year and wrestlers took this opportunity to grab some crucial ranking points.

Iran brought a strong freestyle team with three world champions and a U20 world champion to Almaty. All four of them reached the final of their respective weight classes with three winning gold.

Olympic bronze medalist Bajrang PUNIA (IND) suffered a shock loss for the first time at a Ranking Series but returned to win the bronze medal at 65kg.

Here are the 10 freestyle finals from Almaty.

57kg: Round 5 - AMAN (IND) vs. Meirambek KARTBAY (KAZ)

 

86kg: GOLD - Boris MAKOEV (SVK) vs. Hassan YAZDANI (IRI)

 

125kg: GOLD - Amir ZARE (IRI) vs. Yusup BATIRMURZAEV (KAZ)

#WrestleZagreb

WATCH: Chasing 97kg gold

By United World Wrestling Press

ZAGREB, Croatia (November 3) -- The 97kg weight class at the World Championships in Zagreb saw all four Paris Olympic medalists entered with Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN), defending world champion, as the favorite to win the gold medal in Zagreb.

Apart from Tazhudinov, the field included silver medalist from Paris and European champion Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO), Paris bronze medalists Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE) and Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI), world and Olympic champion Kyle SNYDER (USA), Asian champion Arash YOSHIDA (JPN) and multiple elite wrestlers.

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO DOCUMENTERY HERE

Magomedov and Matcharashvili bowed out early the semifinals pairs were -- Tazhudinov vs Azarpira and Snyder vs Yoshida.

Azarpira knocked off Tazhudinov with a thrilling win in the semifinals and Snyder used his experience to beat Yoshida to enter the final against Azarpira who had defeated him in Paris in the bronze-medal bout.

Snyder and Azapira squared off in the final with the latter taking early lead but the Snyder, the machine he is, came back and defeated the Iranian 4-2, winning his fourth gold medal at the World Championships.

Tazhudinov and Yoshida went on to win the bronze medals on offer, finishing the podium in one of the premium weight classes in the world.