Iran one short of complete Olympic squad as Alizadeh fails in GR qualifiers

Iran’s bid to make a clean sweep of Greco-Roman quotas at the Tokyo Olympics in July was spoiled after Nasser Alizadeh failed to secure one last berth for the country at the World Qualifiers in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

On Saturday, the Iranian suffered a defeat against the European champion Zurabi Datunashvili of Serbia on the last-point criteria in the men’s 87kg quarterfinals.

The two finalists of each weight class were handed a place in the Games.

Mohammadreza Geraei (67kg) Mohammad-Hadi Saravi (97kg) had taken Iran’s berths to five by winning their respective weight divisions at the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in April.

The other three spots had been guaranteed at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships where Alireza Nejati (60kg) and Mohammad-Ali Geraei (77kg) finished their campaigns with a couple of bronze medals while Amir Qassemi Monjezi reached the 130kg semis.

Following the last round of Olympic qualifiers in Sofia, Cuba was the only country to secure a full squad for the Games, with Iran and Russia settling for a five-man team.

USA will be represented by four Greco-Roman wrestlers in Tokyo.

Iran has already secured a complete freestyle team for the Olympics.