Saeid Esmaeili stormed to gold in the 67kg category as Iran’s Greco-Roman wrestling team clinched a second consecutive world championship, finishing the competition in Astana with four gold medals and a commanding 192 points.

Iran’s title-winning campaign was confirmed on Monday, with the final team standings settled on Tuesday after the last medal bouts at the World Wrestling Championships in the Kazakh capital.

The Iranian squad finished with nine medals, including four golds, three silvers and two bronzes, well clear of Azerbaijan, who took second place with 104 points. Uzbekistan finished third with 80.

Esmaeili delivered one of the standout performances of the competition, capping his run to the final with an emphatic 8-0 victory over Uzbekistan’s Aytjan Khalmakhanov to secure Iran’s fourth gold.

The Iranian wrestler had progressed through the draw with convincing wins over the Netherlands’ Laovina and China’s Jin Xinxin, both by technical superiority, before defeating Kazakhstan’s Bagdat Sabaz 7-2 in the quarterfinals.

His semifinal against Azerbaijan’s Hasrat Jafarov, an Olympic bronze medalist and world silver medalist, ended 1-1, with Esmaeili advancing on criteria to reach the final.

Iran’s final medal opportunity in the Greco-Roman competition came in the 87kg division, where Alireza Mohmadi settled for silver after losing 4-0 to Olympic champion Semen Novikov of Bulgaria.

Mohmadi had reached the final with a series of strong performances, including an 8-5 quarterfinal victory over Ukraine’s Yaroslav Filchakov and a 10-1 semifinal win against Armenia’s Gevorg Tadevosyan.

The two finalists’ results completed Iran’s medal tally in Astana, adding to the gold medals won by Danial Sohrabi at 72kg, Gholamreza Farokhi at 82kg and Fardin Hedayati at 130kg.

Payam Ahmadi at 55kg, Ali Ahmadi Vafa at 60kg and Mohmadi at 87kg claimed silver, while Ali Oskoo at 77kg and Mohammad Hadi Saravi at 97kg took bronze.

The final standings underlined Iran’s dominance in the competition. Azerbaijan finished 88 points behind the champions, while Uzbekistan placed third. Belarus and host nation Kazakhstan followed on 63 points apiece, ahead of Russia on 61.

The championships were held in Astana from October 24 to 27 for the Greco-Roman events, as part of the wider 2026 World Wrestling Championships, which bring together the world’s leading wrestlers in Greco-Roman, freestyle and women’s wrestling.