MHSN

ok we have two changes, two wrestlers are added, surprisingly for me, not the names I heard about few hours ago. they are Iliyan Georgiev (BUL) at 75 and Sulyeman Demirci (TUR) at 98. btw we have 139 wrestlers in Greco-Roman, 95 from Europe, 30 from Asia, 13 from Pan-American, 0 Africa and just 1 from Oceania !

OK guys, if you are curious why UWW didn't publish the brackets yet, there is a simple answer, because there is a chance we have changes in some weights, apparently some wrestlers from some of their beloved countries could not make weight and failed, UWW gives them another chance to make weight (apparently on Friday morning) , which means they will probably add extra wrestlers to the list, which can change the bracket. it doesn't change draw number for the rest, so these changes won't be revolutionary. we can wait couple of hours to have the finalized list, but it will be a big shame if they add someone else to the list, I knew they are corrupt but how much ! This is their simplest rule ! you can't make weight in the time of weight-in (which is exactly 30 minutes) you are out. no back door. btw from what I heard, we will probably have changes in 66kg, not sure about the rest. we will see soon.

I think You were really unlucky in Serbia to not qualify even one single wrestler. if you ask me your federation didn't play smart by sending some better wrestlers to Serbia, it was better to save some of them for this tournament , this is what some other countries did. I think Nenad Zugaj has a good chance tomorrow, Neven Zugaj has to survive the winner of Julfalakyan-Bacsi match which will be extremely hard . Janecic chance is also not that bad.like Neven Zugaj, if he wins his first two matches I think he will qualify.

OK, looks like we won't get the official draw before tomorrow, so I have to write based on current unofficial brackets. 59 Top half is much easier, I see 6 wrestlers (out of 8) with good chance to qualify, my pick is Tsymbaliuk of Ukraine. then Ciobanu of Moldova, we also have Lashkhi and Berg here but both wrestled and failed in Serbia which decreases their chance what about bottom half ?! we have 5 world/olympic medalists there, including defending Olympic Champion our Sourian, current Olympic bronze medalist Modos, 2013 World Champion Angelov and 4 times world/olympic medalist Amoyan. these 4 guys plus Tasmuradov are all favorites here. I can't make a prediction here but I really hope Sourian makes it here. winning gold in Rio will be easier than this ! 66 Surprisingly Azerbaijan has no entry here, I read somewhere that Hassan Aliyev could not make weight ?! usually the top half is easier but not this time ! Demyankov, Croat guy, China and Lithuania they are all in the same side and will face each other before the 3rd round ! whoever survives there will have a good chance to qualify. in bottom half we have so many average wrestlers , really hard for me to pick a favorite here, maybe Yuksel (TUR) or Belarus guy ,we also have KAZ, POL and BUL here in this weight my picks are Lithuania, Turkey and China. 75 Very good draw for Cebi of Turkey, even though he still has Belarus, Moldova and Sweden on his way, the Chinese guy Yang Bin is also good, he almost beat the Korean world champion in Asia. we have a brutal draw in bottom half, Julfalakyan has to wrestle Bacsi and the winner will get the winner of Pyshkov and Zugaj, these 4 guys and Cebi could be my top 5 favorite wrestlers here ! I pick Armenia, Turkey and Hungary to qualify here. 85 I see 4-5 good wrestlers in top half, Zugaj, Hamzatov and the Kazakh guy, there is no weak wrestlers here, others also can surprise bottom half is tougher as usual, Noumonvi has Turkey in first round , then probably Azizsir of Germany, we also have Janikowski here who was terrible in Serbia, Kazakevic, the Cuban guy , Armenia and Hrustanovic also have chance. even Georgia, I pick France, Belarus and Germany here. 98 no clear favorite in top half , I give chance to JPN, ITA, BLR, CZE , even LTU. I thnk Hrabovik is slightly the favorite here. we have Ohler, Nuriyev, Nielsen, Gerogia and few more guys here like Kazakhstan. also Schon of Sweden. I pick Norway, Belarus and Germany here. 130 balanced draw this time. Euren is the clear favorite in top half China and Georgia can cause problem for him. in bottom half Chugoshvili is the favorite on paper , I give good chance to our guy Ghasemi, this is our weakest weight in wrestling (probably the only weight we have no realistic chance for medal in Rio) he is not young but inexperienced in important tournaments. he really can beat these guys but I don't count on it. I expect Sweden to qualify, nothing about the bottom half. * Note: my predictions are based on latest shape of these wrestlers, but there is one very important factor, some of these wrestlers participated in Euro qualifier last weekend, maybe they are exhausted this is what we don't know . for example Noumonvi is good enough to qualify if he is in shape but I'm not sure if he is. wrestling is tough sport, these wrestlers are usually 6-7 kg heavier than their competition weight, they cut weight for the competition, and it's no easy to cut weight twice in 10 days.

Robert Baran ? I don't consider him a top favorite but he has his chance , this is a wide open competition in this weight, I give more chance to Asian wrestlers just because they are fresh

For unknown reasons they didnt publish the brackets yet. But in participants section you can see draw number which will shows us the final draw. Unless something weird happens there Sourian got the worst possible draw ! Amoyan then Angelov rhen probably Korea and finally Tasmuradov or Modos in semies. While the top half looks much easier. 130kg draw looks balanced. Ghasemi has ARG then Lam of Hungary. Then UZB and probably Chogushvili in the semies. He is new to this level of competition so its hard for me to predict but he has to qualify. i will write my whole preview later when they finalize the brackets

No realistic chance in freestyle, maybe very slim chance for El-Ouaraque

Hard to say since we just have a preliminary roster (even some qualified wrestlers are there) but based on that list (which is not final) I can name few wrestlers in each weight 57 Yatsenko (UKR) Andreyev (BLR) Akgul (TUR) Hasanzada (AZE) Tomar (IND) 65 Batirov (BRN) Kantoyev (BLR) Nvoachkov (BUL) Garcia (CAN) Zhumagaziyev (KAZ) Sava (MDA) Molinaro (USA) This is the toughest weight, I named these guys but there are much more good wrestlers, we have PRK, JPN, TUR, GEO even Romania 74 Kurbanov (UZB) I can't see another "favorite" here, wide competition, something like 10 wrestlers are almost in the same level. if Turkey enters Demirtas I would put him in the favorite list too , one of my favorites Modolvia Nedealco is also here 86 Again, can't see any top favorite here, I give more chance to Cox (USA), Ceballos (VEN), Ianulov (MDA), Usmanov (UZB) or Stefan (ROU), Ukraine didn't enter Aldatov here yet and their wrestler here is unknown to me but he has to be good. 97 Again hard to chose any favorite here, I give more chance to the Mongolian guy, whoever Turkey sends, KOR, JPN and MDA, 125 Ligeti (HUN) Deng (CHN) Lazarev (HUN) the guy Gagloev from SVK lost only 1-1 to Zaseyev (who is a medal fav in Rio) I wonder if it was fluke or he is this good.

https://unitedworldwrestling.org/event/1st-og-world-qualifying-tournament on each weight check on "participants" section.

Sourian and Amir Ghasemi-Monjazi, 2016 Asian Champion

Oops i had basketball in my mind when i started to write but i just forgot it. Lol after we have no realistic chance

With Kimia Alizadeh securing a spot in Women's Taekwondo today, now we have 41 quotas. here is the list of remaining qualifiers for Iranian athletes. Wrestling: 1st World Qualifier 22-24 April (if necessary 2nd qualifier 6-8 May) Rowing: Asian/Oceania Qualifier 22-25 April Canoeing Slalom: Asian Qualifier 23-24 April Boxing: APB/WAS Qualifier 13-22 May Volleyball: World/Asian Qualifier 28 May-5 June Judo; The end of qualification period 31 May Boxing: World Amateur Qualifier 7-19 June Archery: World Cup 13-18 June Beach Volleyball: AVC Cup 15-21 June (first they have to qualify in semifinal round 12-14 May) beside that you always can qualify by reaching the standards in Athletics and Swimming, while in Swimming we have no chance to qualify , but they will most probably get a universality place.

I was very wrong with my predictions today only Zaseev and Popp. very impressive results for Estonia, never been a fan of Nabi , but he really deserved his quota today. same goes to Arusaar. Congrats to all qualified wrestlers, those who lost here have a very tough job to recover and go to Mongolia in less than a week. countries with depth (TUR, AZE etc) will replace them with someone else. I think Mongolian tourney is the best chance if anybody want to qualify, first because 3 will qualify and not 2. second because the field is probably weaker than next tournament in Turkey.

Actually that was the old rule, per new rules they give Kyong-go (means caution in Taekwondo) a bit easier but instead getting 10 Kyong-gos means PUN (or simply disqualification) it rarely happens these days

results are available, Mongolia and Jordan qualified in68kg. first ever TKD quota for Mongolia

Kimia qualifies , still it was disappointing to have only 4 athletes in TKD. I was expecting 5 or 6. but that's it. at least all of these 4 athletes are strong medal favorites.

Had a busy day today at work (holidays in Iran are different than yours ) and could not watch most of the matches, I could catch some quarterfinals and then the stream stopped working for the semies ! lol but I got 5 out 8. not that bad ! here is for tomorrow 97 FS Not so high level competition, I think in top half it will be between Yankouski and Bulukbasi , while GER and ARM can challenge them, in bottom half is quite easier, maybe Ceban or Baran of Poland, btw we have a former Russian (now Macedonian) guy here in Nurov, he can be dangerous. unknown to me though. 125 FS A very easy top half, the Greek guy there is a two time world medalist but he was VERY luck both times, he is not that good, I think the quota will be between him and Jalilov.. I think Zaseev will win the bottom half easily. Ligeti is good but I don't see him challenging Ligeti. 98 GR I think the first round match between Ildem and Ohler will determine the qualified wrestler from top half. even though there are few more "good" wrestlers there like the Hungarian guy and Timoncini. in bottom half I see Azerbaijan once again is using Gadabadze who is the favorite IMO, Dzeinichenka and the Georgian guy can challenge him. surprisingly Norway didn't enter the top guy Nielsen here, maybe saving him for Mongolia ! 130 GR Another "balanced draw" I see Popp of Germany as slight favorite in top half with Georgian guy and Mizgaitis after him. in bottom half interestingly Sweden didn't enter Euren here (maybe resting him) even though Sjoberg is also a former world medalist, I think it will be between him and Chogushvili. we also have BUL, ARM and Lam of Hungary here and of course the luckiest person in the world, Nabi of Estonia I think/hope he runs out of luck here are my pics 97: Yankouski (BLR) vs Ceban (MDA) 125: Jalilov (BLR) and Zaseev (UKR) 98: Ildem (TUR) and Gadabadze (AZE) 130: Popp (GER) and Chugoshvili (BLR) it can be a very good day for Belarus, maybe they even win all 4 possible male quotas.

thanks, I tried the same source couple hours ago and didn't find that. how lucky he is, exactly 65m !

Today was a sad day for me because of Taekwondo but apparently we won another quota in athletics , according to Iranian news agencies , Mahmoud Samimi reached the qualification standard in a tournament in Hungary, I couldn't find a Hungarian source to confirm that

Here is the final decision of Iran Wrestling Federation technical committee about Olympic Trials, in some weights they already selected the Olympic team member, in other weights they narrowed it down to two wrestlers . in both Greco and Freestyle they will consider the World Cup as their main trial event, both candidates will go to the World Cup and whoever performs better will go to Rio, but remember World Cup is a team event and each country can enter two wrestlers per weight, our wrestlers will not face each other there ! if none of convinced the coaches , they will send them to another international tournament. we have a special case for 97kg freestyle. the big big favorite Reza Yazdani is seriously injured and his situation is still unclear. Freestyle 57: Hassan Rahimi vs Reza Atri 65: Meisam Nassiri vs Ahmad Mohammadi 74: Hassan Yazdani 86: Alireza Karimi 97: Amir Mohammadi vs Abbas Tahan and maybe Reza Yazdani 125: Komeil Ghasemi vs Parviz Hadi Greco-Roman 59: Yet to qualify 66: Omid Norouzi vs Mehdi Zeidvand 75: Saeid Abdevali 85: Habibollah Akhlaghi vs Hossein Nouri 98: Ghasem Rezaei vs Mehdi Aliyari 130: Yet to qualify * 3 wrestlers are already selected. Yazdani, Karimi and Abdevali. * in 97kg, Tahan and Mohammadi will go to the World Cup, if Yazdani recovers in time after 2.5 months, one of those guys and Yazdani will go to Armenia tournament to determine the Olympic team member. * in 98kg Greco, Rezaei and Aliyari both will wrestle in World Cup, if none of them convinces they will wrestle each other right after the World Cup or the next day. * in other weights if they take their final decision after the World Cup, they will send both candidates to an international tournament. I think they already took their decision about 57 freestyle and 66 Greco , Rahimi and Norouzi just have to be "not bad" in World Cup to be selected.

in some weights we had more than just 2 athletes , I just wrote the final series results. beside that these wrestlers are selected for this round after series of pre-trials. what's the point of having trials ? determine the best representative , right ? what if someone only can wrestle good at home, against Iranian wrestlers, in fact those guys who lost here (Akhlaghi and Mohammadi) won the quota for Iran, in World Championship after beating so many tough wrestlers, they both lost their semifinal/quarterfinal while they were leading , just did a mistake and got pinned. who knows they both could win the gold last year ! yes it's unfair to send the loser without giving the "winner" another chance to prove himself, that's what our wrestling federation did. I will write about their decision in details in my next post

No they never said they will send the trial winner for sure, but winning the trials you have a better chance. Nouri is the younger version of Akhlaghi but much weaker in defense, I watched his match in Baku GP against Chakvetadze and OMG, the Russian manhandled him easily, with more training and more experience he can become a world class wrestler in near future but not NOW ! this is Olympic year. yeah that fall was unbelievable for Akhlaghi , he was leading 7-0 but it happens, he won the bronze medal quite easily and could even wrestle in the final if it wasn't for that dumb mistake. btw their technical committee announced their final decision about all weights

Khodabandeh is probably the biggest choker i ever seen. She only and only had to beat a much lighter Filipino girl and she failed . I hope kimia qualifies tomorrow . Today was a big blow.

We had the Wrestling trials today in few weights with some surprising results, all finals were best of 3 Freestyle 65kg: Meisam Nassiri beat Ahmad Mohammadi 2-0 (4-3 fall and 5-3) 74kg: Hassan Yazdani beat Mostafa Hosseinkhani 2-0 (5-1 and 2-0) 86kg: Alireza Karimi beat Meisam Jokar 2-0 (5-2 and 4-4) Greco-Roman 85kg: Hossein Nouri beat Habibollah Akhlaghi 2-0 (4-1 and 4-3) Yazdani and Karimi are already selected for Rio. no doubt about it. but in 65 freestyle and 85 Greco the underdog won the final. Ahmad Mohammadi is a gold medal hope for me and not sending him to Rio will be a big mistake, Nassiri is indeed good but still Mohammadi is better and already proved himself in international competitions. as in Greco, Akhlaghi was also a gold medal hope for Rio but to be honest Nouri beat him and dominated him. it will be hard to not send Nouri but his record in international competition is terrible !, he is just a bad matchup for Akhlaghi. I really hope they send Akhlaghi to Rio.

This Sanal Semenov guy manhandled Fris like a baby, he did the same to his other opponents ! he came from nowhere and teched everybody here ! how is that possible ?! this is his non-impressive CV. I really need to see a picture of these twin brothers together to make sure, I still think maybe it was Mingiyan Semenov wrestling under another name ! Rumors say he is under investigation for doping so it makes sense to not send him (officially) here. Sanal or Mingiyan this guy will be a big favorite for gold in Rio.