MHSN

well I don't think there is a chance for your speed specialists in combined event. but here they could have a very good chance for medal. A world championship medal is important itself. I can't understand the logic behind this

no Indonesia ?! how come they participate for the World Cups but don't care about the World Championship ?! specially when they have a good chance for medal !? I assume Japan isn't that far from them

impressive for Russia to have 4 in the final. even though their 55kg wrestler was lucky twice. both in QF and SF. for Iran I think it was better than freestyle, 2 in the final. 1 for bronze and 2 more in repechage (I expect both of them to reach the bronze medal match) looks like we finally have a good super heavyweight wrestler in Yousefi. his style is boring but efficient. but I was paying attention to Estonian wrestlers today, they had 4 (out of 5 weight classes) and all of them lost in the first round ! only one of them will be back tomorrow for the repechage and I'm almost sure he will lose that to India. looks like they didn't learn anything from Heiki "lucky" Nabi. he has to teach younger wrestlers there how to win medals without doing anything

thanks but I have a question, is this is a sure thing that they will not consider Pan African Games instead of the ranking for Africa ? and another thing, Khaksar still will have the spot if the deadline was today, per rules. only first 2 American athletes will be picked before Asia. the 3rd one will be the last. also first they will pick 1 for each gender before going to the "at least 2 different NOCs" rule here is the order per my understanding Oceania : 2 athletes (one per gender) (M 75) (W Kata) Africa : 2 athletes (one per gender) (M 75) (W 55) Pan-America : 2 athletes (one per gender) (M +75) (W 61) Asia : 2 athletes (one per gender) (M 67) (W 55) Europe : 2 athletes (one per gender) (M +75) (W +61) Africa : 1 athlete (one per gender) (W 61) Pan-America : 1 athlete (gender depends on Africa selection) (M 67) possible if I missed something. way too complicated. for some cases athletes were even tied in the ranking and I had to consider their points and even if one of them changes. that will change the rest too. so this list is far from over. nobody will be picked for men's Kata for now, so If this stands it will be 2 wild cards for this event.

terrible day, we had 3 matches vs USA on 3 mats at the same time in QF and they lost all 3 of them ! also the 92kg guy was supposed to be the next big star but lost the 1st round to Russia. 2 of them will be back in action in repechage. 2 of them eliminated. but at least the 5th guy. Amir Hossein Zare destroyed his Russian opponent in the SF 11-1. we will have a finalist in the last FS day. but the team title is gone. it will be between USA and Russia. USA will have 3 finalists tomorrow. and 2 more in bronze medal match.

Iranian athletes always have this problem, but only in some countries (USA and UK for example) it's intentional just to make a statement , to show they are the boss or stupid things like that. most of the time it's just matter of paperwork . there is no political relationship between Iran and Estonia (not bcz there is a problem. but because those countries have nothing in common) they had to go through Finland embassy and that took time. actually the whole team almost missed the competition but some phone calls from high rank government officials made it happen. but it didn't turn out bad for Iran, the reserve guy just won the gold and for the second time in this competition he received favorable calls. the Russian can complain that he got pinned early in first period but well you can't challenge the fall. so he was lucky.

I was expecting a bit more from the first day, we lost a match to Algeria !! probably first time ever in freestyle. but that kid had a tragedy in his family few days ago. that was a mistake sending him here. Parasteh was also terrible losing to Kazakhstan, Firouzpour at 70kg was very close to the final. gave up a 5-0 lead early and had to come back, lost it 5-5 with couple of controversial calls against him. Maghsoudi at 65 wasn't even supposed to be here, he was the last minute replacement because the main guy Amir Mohammad Yazdani denied visa. he is in the final but he was very lucky in QF against Azerbaijan, won the match by a last second caution which was indeed controversial. I have to say the Azeri kid got robbed. btw @phelps great job you recognized our 97kg guy surname which is indeed just Foroutan, but his name is Abbas. not Ali. UWW for some weird reasons always put the father's name for the Iranian wrestlers which is never part of the name. Ali is his father.

not a single surprise in 12 IOQTs (men and women). I think Argentina-Canada was 50/50 so that doesn't count as a surprise congrats to all qualified teams, specially Italy

what a match. Olympic quota for Brazil and most probably Chile. moral victory + broken heart for Bulgaria. they really had the spot in their pocket. it will hurt for a while.

based on first 2 set results I thought Brazil is giving the match to Bulgaria (for money for example) but then I started watching the 3rd set. oh no way. what a great match. everything is great in this match, except the loud speaker and his terrible voice

best comment ever.

Mijain Lopez is officially back. https://wrsd.lima2019.pe/PAG2019/en/results/wrestling/result-men-s-greco-roman-130-kg-qfnl-000400-.htm we knew that for a while when they transferred the other guy to freestyle but now he is back on the mat officially.

Polo national sport in Iran ?! no way. Polo is apparently "invented" in Iran. but nothing more. I wonder if there are more than 40 Polo players here. Varzesh-e-Bastani ? (or better you call it Zurkhaneh Sports) again no . this is pretty much dead right now. yeah they try to promote it sometimes as it has religious elements but absolutely no attraction for the younger generation. there is no "official national sport" (don't trust wikipedia) but I hear sometimes they call wrestling as the national sport in media. even though obviously the only "very popular" sport here is football and by a huge huge huge margin.

it seems FIFA didn't approve Iraq to host its home matches, I read different news about it. first says they just can't host it in Basra, 2nd says they can't host at all and it seems Iraq Football federation threatened to withdraw. this is kind of interesting because right now Iraq is hosting the West Asian Championship !! personally I believe Iraq deserves to host if they can guarantee safety. I just don't think Iran playing in Basra is a good idea. they can play anywhere in Iraq, just not Basra. that will be dangerous for our players. Basra was battleground during the Iran-Iraq war not long ago.

medalists last day of Greco-Roman 45kg: 1) Izimgali, 2) Bakhramov, 3) Sadikhli & Glonti 51kg: 1) Esmaeili, 2) Aliyev, 3) Voitovych & Nazaryan 60kg: 1) Skuratov, 2) Ilbars, 3) Vardanyan & Broladze 71kg: 1) Saki, 2) Starodubtsev, 3) Tas & Gutu 92kg: 1) Valiyev, 2) Evloev, 3) Demir & Karelson Team ranking 1) Iran 148 2) Azerbaijan 123 3) Russia 99 Iran won the team title by a good margin, and also won 2 more gold medalist. interestingly in Greco we had 4 wrestlers in the final. all of them ended up winning gold medal and 4 more in bronze medal match and all of them lost it. mostly in dramatic way. in general that was a good tournament. always to win a team title over mighty Russia the Kazakh kid at 45kg Izimgali was the most impressive wrestler in my opinion

I wonder how Dominican players were feeling if they were watching this USA-Bulgaria match. from almost beating Brazil and securing the spot to watching USA almost losing to Bulgaria which could make the qualification VERY hard for them in NORCECA. Bulgarian players were having the match of their life they had their chances in 2nd set (they had 4-5 pts). 4th and also the 5th set. so far we had some 5-set matches in these qualifiers but all of them ended up in favor of the "favorite team" . still no surprise at all.

not necessarily. even if I was supporting the system in general I wouldn't support such stupid policy as a sport fan (and a crazy one). which is like shooting yourself in the foot. this only hurts the Iranian athletes and nobody else. specially not Israel. but no in general I disagree with 90% of their policies. and of course i don't support the current system which is terrible. but I also don't support those so called "opposition groups". but in my answers I usually try to show the other side of the story because I know western media always cover (and exaggerate) anything negative about Iran.

The ends justifies the means that's OK. you can ask as much as you want. Radio Farda is almost a credible website. I watch their TV sometimes. but I use the word "almost" because they also exaggerate things and say nonsense sometimes. they are part of USA program of shoving "democracy" into people's throat everywhere the article is most probably accurate unfortunately. but it's not because of "Defying Compulsory Hijab". it's because of promoting that, encouraging others to do that etc. I don't know what's the penalty for "not having hejab". but usually they just tell you to "correct your hejab" even though hejab in Iran is different, most women just put something to cover half of their hair or something. but if you resist them and some girls do that these days, there is a good chance for detention . first time probably nothing. 2nd time they will call your dad or your husband to come and sign a paper "promising not repeating that" but if you do this repeatedly. there will be some bad penalties I'm not aware. but it's very rare to put someone in jail because of that. for these women, they consider it something political. that's why the penalty is way too harsh. but of course it doesn't mean they will stay in jail for that long. they will be out of that in less than a year most probably. but for some reasons I can't feel sympathy with those women. most of them are not really into freedom or democracy. they just want to make a case for themselves. go to jail for a short period. make it public, and then they ask for asylum in a European country. then they will become "opposition" and become "political expert" in one of those so many Persian language TVs outside of Iran (one of them is this Radiofarda) and tell people "Islamic Republic" is a bad thing. and Iran was like heaven during the former dictator before 1979 revolution. that's the routine. it happened for SO MANY people and they are all working in those TV channels. of course I maybe wrong and maybe they really believe in what they are doing and in this case I have maximum respect for them, there are some rare examples you know sometimes I think I sound like someone who support the current system in Iran but that's not true, I just try to answer your questions in a neutral way.

medalists 1st medal of Greco-Roman 48kg: 1) Dehbozorgi, 2) Babashov, 3) Kamaliyev & Rupin 55kg: 1) Mammadli, 2) Patil, 3) Mirzorajabov & Atabaev 65kg: 1) Bonka, 2) Ochilov, 3) Khachikyan & Toesmagi 80kg: 1) Aliekseieiev, 2) Lupasco, 3) Sailau & Nazaryan 110kg: 1) Mikaeili, 2) Kurdyan, 3) Gokadze & Bazso we finished this session 2-2. both defeats against Armenia , in bronze medal matches, but Iranians won both finals.

finals for 2nd day of Greco 45kg: Bakhramov vs Izimgali 51kg: Esmaeili vs Aliyev 60kg: Ilbars vs Skuratov 71kg: Starodubtsev vs Saki 92kg: Valiyev vs Evloev Russia made up for the first day by having 3 finalists, but still they are far behind Iran in race for the team title. their other two wrestlers got eliminated. not a bad day for Iran with 2 finalists, but we lost both of our head to head matches to Russia. the other defeat to Kazakhstan at 45kg was expected, this Kazakh kid is something special.

Second day Greco-Roman semifinalists 45kg: vs / vs 51kg: vs / vs 60kg: vs / vs 71kg: vs / vs 92kg: vs / vs once again 4 in the semifinals for Iran but this time it will be much harder. 3 of them will wrestle against 2019 European gold medalist and the other one will be up against a very impressive Kazakh Asian Champion. I think none of our wrestlers are favorite to win the semifinal !

finals for first day of Greco, 10 wrestlers from 8 different countries and none from Russia 48kg: Dehbozorgi vs Babashov 55kg: Patil vs Mammadli 65kg: Ochilov vs Bonka 80kg: Lupasco vs Alieksieiev 110kg: Mikaeili vs Kurdyan Disappointed in two other semifinal defeats but that super heavyweight SF was positively surprising, interesting to see a Tajik wrestler in the final.

yes unfortunately that's the case, they want to leave and they don't care what will happen to poor people there. I follow the news in Afghanistan regularly and people are really worried about this possible agreement with Taliban. I wish I knew how you can make a deal with them when they believe women should not go to school !! (well only for first 2-3 years only to learn how to read and write, no more) and based on what I know about them, they will never give up this. (and that's just an example) even if they do that will be just tactical and for short term.

with their core supporters that's the only way unfortunately, but in long term the only way to completely defeat them is to educate younger generations. USA invaded Afghanistan something like 20 years ago. so if Taliban still can recruit people younger than 30 it means they did absolutely nothing in this matter. the current government of Afghanistan (which is corrupt) is not a good example too. Taliban right now is much stronger than 10 years ago. guess why. you can't kill an ideology by bombs and missiles.

oh yes that but Afghanistan isn't in the middle east. honestly I don't know much about Pre-Taliban era in Afghanistan . they were still an Islamic country though. but there were always wars in Afghanistan. so I can assume it was never Switzerland. speaking of Taliban, I can't understand how someone can make "peace" with them as you hear in the news these days. they will never give up their ideology which is against humanity.