TEHRAN – Iranian Greco-Roman wrestler Mohammadreza Geraei won a bronze medal at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships Sunday night.

At 67kg, Geraei, taking full advantage of the challenge process as he did throughout the tournament, defeated Slavik Galstyan (ARM) by a rare disqualification for two leg violations, UWW.org reported.

After gaining a passivity point and going on top on par terre, Geraei received a 2-point leg penalty on a challenge. That kept him on top, and he then lifted up Galstyan and unleased a 2-point throw. Again Galstyan was flagged for a leg foul, which ended the match at 2:09.

Geraei, the world champion in 2021 and silver medalist last year, posted a wild 11-10 victory over Kyotaro Sogabe (JPN) in the second round. After losing to Jafarov in the quarterfinals, he made it through the repechage earlier Sunday by rallying from four points down to defeat Krisztian VANCZA (HUN) 6-5.

Iran came second in the 2023 World Wrestling Championships with one gold (Amin Mirzazadeh – 130kg), one silver (Alireza Mohmedi – 82kg) and three bronzes (Pouya Dadmarz – 55kg, Mohammad Reza Geraei – 67kg, Mohammad Hadi Saravi – 97kg) in the competition held in Belgrade, Serbia.

Azerbaijan, with three champions and two silver medalists, won the team title for the first time in its history with 120 points, followed by Iran with 102 and Turkey with 93.