TEHRAN – Hassan Yazdani from Iran claimed a gold medal in the 2019 World Wrestling Championships on Sunday after his Indian rival Deepak Punia withdrew from the final because of injuries from previous rounds.

The Iranian freestyle wrestler, who won a gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games, was scheduled to meet Punia in the 86kg final.

"My leg is swollen up and it is hurting. The eye is swollen too, but it happens in wrestling. I picked up both injuries during the first round. I am not fighting in the final (because of leg injury)," Deepak told Sportstar from Nur-Sultan on Sunday.

Iran’s freestyle team wrapped up the 2019 World Championships with two bronzes, one silver and one gold medal.

Alireza Karimi had won a silver in 92kg category while Younes Emami and Behnam Ehsanpour seized two bronze medals at the 70kg and 61kg, respectively.

Russia won the title with 190 points, followed by Kazakhstan (103 points) and the U.S (94 points).

Iran narrowly finished in fourth place with 93 points.  

The 2019 World Wrestling Championships were held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.