Navid Zanganeh
Navid Zanganeh is an Iranian born wrestler and former member of the Iranian U-23 freestyle wrestling team.
Wrestling career
Zanganeh wrestled for club Atrak Khorasan and represented Iran on the world stage.
During the 2018 Senior U23 World Championships in Bucharest Zanganeh earned a bronze medal after defeating Azerbaijani wrestler Ismail Abdullaev.[1]
At the 2019 U-23 Senior Asian Championships Zanganeh won a silver medal after beating opponents from Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan before facing defeat in the finals.[2]
The Takhti freestyle wrestling tournament took place on Feb. 7th and 8th 2019 with representatives from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia, Armenia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia. Zanganeh placed third and was a part of Iran's overall victory in the tournament.[3]
Arrest and Asylum
Zanganeh was shot at anti-government rally in Tehran and was subsequently arrested after being taken to hospital.[4] He was detained for 15 days and was eventually released from Fashafaviye prison.[4] Zanganeh was immediately released from his club Atrak Khorasan and was unable to wrestle for Iran.[5] After the arrest was made public, Zanganeh emigrated to Canada and hopes to resume his wrestling career representing Canada.[6]
References
- tristan. "Senior U23 World Championships". United World Wrestling. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- "Three medals for Iran's freestyle wrestlers in Mongolia championship". Iran Press (in Persian). 2019-03-24. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- "FarsNews Agency - Iran Claims Title at Int'l Freestyle Wrestling Cup". en.farsnews.ir. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- Stone, Pooya. "Iranian National Athletes Leave the Country". www.iranfocus.com. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- "Iranian Wrestler Released From Detention Seeks Asylum In Canada". RFE/RL. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- "Iranian wrestler seeks asylum in Canada after released from detention". InterMat. Retrieved 2020-07-17.