According to "Varzesh 3", the performance of Iran's Greco-Roman wrestling national team in the World Championships has been so brilliant that it seemingly did not sit well with United World Wrestling, and in the meantime, several controversial refereeing decisions have created a lot of controversy. These incidents did not sit well with the coaching staff and Iranian wrestling officials, causing protests against the officiating of the matches to become more intense day by day. From the very first day, some refereeing decisions were met with criticism from the Iranian coaching staff, and this trend continued in the following days.
The story began on the opening day of the competitions; where Ali Askou was striving to reach the final, but ultimately failed to advance to the title match. The refereeing decisions of this bout were accompanied by protests, and among Iranian wrestling circles, the belief formed that the officiating had an impact on the final result. Consequently, Iran could not have 4 representatives in the finals of the first four weight classes; an event that escalated protests against the performance of the refereeing committee from the very beginning of the competitions.
These controversies continued in the second four weight classes as well; where Mohammad Hadi Saravi, the captain of Iran's Greco-Roman wrestling national team, faced Artur Sarkisian, his Russian opponent. In one of the scenes of this match, from the perspective of the Iranian coaching staff, Sarkisian pushed Saravi out of the mat using a leg trip technique and his foot; a scene which the Iranian camp believed should have been accompanied by a warning for the Russian wrestler and a point for Saravi. However, the referees decided otherwise, and this very issue became another point of contention for the Iranian team.
Today, during Alireza Mehdi's match against his Ukrainian opponent, protests over the referees' officiating flared up once again. Although Mehdi ultimately managed to emerge victorious from this difficult bout, throughout the match, scuffles repeatedly broke out over grabbing his neck; scenes that, from the perspective of the Iranian coaching staff, should have been met with a reprimand or warning for the Ukrainian wrestler.
Following the end of this bout, Hassan Rangraz, the head coach of Iran's Greco-Roman wrestling national team, fell ill in the warm-up hall and suffered a drop in blood pressure. Of course, this condition improved after a few moments, but the story did not end there. Afterwards, Rangraz raised his protest in a conversation with Alireza Dabir, the president of the Wrestling Federation, and fiercely complained about what had happened during Mehdi's match. In the published videos of this incident, the national team head coach criticizes the referees' performance in a harsh tone and uses the word "corruption" to describe what occurred in this match. He believed that the officiating was steered in such a way that Mehdi would leave the mat as the loser.
In another part of the published images from Kazakhstan, a notable dialogue from Hassan Rangraz can also be heard. Pointing to the performance of the national athletes and the chance of winning medals in all weight classes, the head coach of Iran's Greco-Roman wrestling national team says: "They cannot bear to see us win ten medals in ten weight classes." This sentence shows how strongly Rangraz is protesting the refereeing incidents and feels that the Iranian team's performance in some matches has been influenced by controversial decisions.
Yesterday, Alireza Dabir also became furiously angry after Mohammad Hadi Saravi's match and showed his protest to the referees; an event that created controversial scenes in the arena. After calming down, Dabir also claimed that United World Wrestling officials are seeking to distribute medals among various countries and assessed the refereeing incidents as aligned with such an approach
Source: Varzesh 3
No comments yet — be the first to share your view.