TEHRAN – Olympic gold medal winner Komeil Ghasemi says Iran’s legendary wrestler Gholamreza Takhti is his role model.

The 2012 Olympic champion and member of UWW athlete commission Ghasemi, was joined by the 1996 Olympic champion Rasoul Khadem as they visited cities in Gilan Province to help provide doctors and nurses with new equipment for fighting COVID-19.

“It’s normal to see these kinds of heroic behaviors from the Iranian wrestlers” Ghasemi said.

“My role model is late Takhti who helped the victims of the earthquake occurred in Bou'in-Zahra,” he added.

Iran’s death toll from the new coronavirus has risen by 87 to 5,118, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV on Sunday.

The total number of infected cases in Iran, the Middle Eastern country hardest hit by the outbreak, has reached 82,211, he said.