Iran’s Amouzad eyeing world, Asian Games glory after maiden Asian gold
Iranian freestyle wrestler Rahman Amouzad said he has now set sights on grabbing golds at the World Championships and the upcoming Asian Games after claiming the ultimate prize on his debut at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Nicknamed ‘Ruthless Rahman’ on social media, the 19-year-old Iranian showed no mercy against Indian Bajrang Punia – winner of three world medals and a bronze medalist in last year’s Tokyo Olympics – beating his high-profile opponent 3-1 for the 65kg gold on Saturday.
Both had received an activity point – Punia in the first period and Amouzad in the second – before the Iranian finally broke the stalemate with a single-leg takedown with 1:40 minutes left in the bout. Punia never got close to scoring as he had to settle for the silver as his eighth career Asian medal.
“Bajrang is very famous in the world and he has world and Olympic medals,” Amouzad said after the final.
“So I had trained accordingly for him. I now hope to win the gold at the Asian Games and World Championships.”
Amouzad, who already has three world cadet and junior golds under his belt, outmuscled Pakistan’s Inayat Ullah (11-0) and Japanese Kaiki Yamaguchi (9-0) before defeating host’s Tsogbadrakh Tseveensuren 6-0 en route to the final.
His triumph was coupled with another two gold medals for the country on the first day of the freestyle contests.
Ali Savadkouhi beat Gourav Baliyan, also from India, in the 79kg final before Mohammadhossein Askari Mohammadian made a clean sweep of final victories for Iran by demolishing Mongolian Batzul Ulziisaikhan 11-0 in the 97kg weight class.