Dr. Sohrab Keyhani said that the knee surgery has gone excellent, hoping that Alireza Karimi could get back to the mat in the determined time.

“He had a complete torn ACL and performing surgery was a good decision,” he said. According to physicians, Karimi needs seven months to gain full recovery.

He suffered a knee injury in late December 2019 at the World Wrestling Clubs Cup held in Bojnurd, northeast Iran. Doctors had been using a non-aggressive PRP therapy combined with special training to treat his injury so that he could reach the 2020 Olympics. In early March, he announced his return to the mat and continuation of his training in his hometown Karaj.

However, as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been postponed for a year, the medical team of the wrestling federation was mulling over whether to perform surgery or not.

Karimi needs to win the required points in qualifying events to secure his ticket to Tokyo.

Iranian freestyle team has so far gained three out of six quotas for the Olympics. The qualifying events have been postponed for 2021.

In 70 kg category, Iran’s Mohammad Naderi defeated rivals from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan to reach the final and there, he gained a deserved victory over Kyrgyzstan’s wrestler and snatched the gold medal.

Omid Hassantabar, in 80 kg category, overpowered rivals from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Turkmenistan, in his route to gain the second gold medal of Iran.

And in the +100 kg category, Iran’s Jaber Sadeghzadeh won Lithuanian, Tajik and Bulgarian wrestlers before defeating Georgia’s Kurtanidze in the final bout.

48 wrestlers from 26 different countries have participated in the event which was held in three weight categories on Tuesday.

Pahlavani (koshti) is a common name for the traditional wrestling of Iran, which is the most revered sport in the country and has a very ancient history. The nationwide style of wrestling in Iran is considered to be the koshti pahlavani or, as it is also called, the style of Zurkhaneh. The wrestling technique of koshti pahlavani is extremely diverse and represents one of the best examples of free wrestling.

Aimed at developing the ethnosport and ethnoculture movement in the world and the heritage of human civilization, World Nomad Games is a biennial event held in Cholpon-Ata, in the Issyk-Kul Province of Kyrgyzstan. Some 3,000 athletes from 77 countries have participated in its third edition in 37 types of ethnosports which kicked off on September 2.

The three Iranian Greco-Roman wrestlers attending the Vehbi Emre and Hamit Kaplan Wrestling tournament in Istanbul of Turkey retuned home with two bronze medals.

The international event which is part of the international ranking system for wrestling kicked off on July 19 and came to an end on July 22.

Ramin Taheri and Mehdi Aliyari of the Iranian squad collected a bronze medal each in the weight categories of 87kg and 97kg.

Amir Hossein Hosseini of Iranian outfit in the weight division of 97kg finished 5th in the tournament.