According to the official website of United World Wrestling (UWW), wrestlers from eight different nationalities claimed the grand prize of $10,000 as United World Wrestling announced the prize winners of Greco-Roman in its year-end awards.
On Monday, the prize winners of the freestyle were announced and wrestlers from seven different countries took the top spot.
UWW continues to recognize and empower the wrestlers and will award $600,000 in prize money to 90 wrestlers, 30 from each style, based on a ranking system that honors the most active wrestler throughout the season. The top-ranked wrestler will get $10,000 followed by $7,000 for the second-placed wrestler and $3,000 for the third-ranked wrestler, UWW wrote.
The prize money is almost three times from what it was in 2019 as the UWW Bureau had approved a generous $600,000 prize package at the beginning of the season. The 2021 prize money combines the amount that was reserved for 2020 but was not distributed due to the impact COVID-19 had on the competition.
Accordingly, Meysam Dalkhani, who had lost to Assetuly in the Asian final, captured the gold at the World Championships and moved from the fifth spot to the top spot, thanks to the 60 points he collected in Oslo. From the Asian Championships, Dalkhani had 18 points.
According to the UWW website, one of the two wrestlers in the world to win Olympic and World titles in the same year, Mohammadreza Geraei had an unchallenged path to the top at 67kg. He collected 128 points from the two tournaments he participated in, winning gold in both.
He won the 67kg gold medal at Tokyo Olympics and then repeated the feat at the World Championships in Oslo. He collected 68 points from Tokyo and added 60 more from the '21 Worlds.
Aliakbar Yousefi Ahmadchali's only loss this year came against compatriot Amin Mirzazadeh in the final of the Poland Open ranking event. He won two gold medals at the Asian and World championships.
He collected 60 points from the gold in Oslo, 18 from the gold in Almaty, and 14 from the silver medal in Warsaw.
6125**9417
Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish