Mohammad Bana Becomes Head Coach of Iran's Greco-Roman Wrestling Team

The Iranian Wrestling Federation announced that it has reached an agreement with Mohammad Bana to lead the national Greco-Roman wrestling team. Accordingly, Mr. Bana will take on the head coaching responsibilities for the Iranian team at the 2016 Olympics. This agreement came after a joint meeting between Rasoul Khadem, the president of the Wrestling Federation, and Mohammad Bana. Mr. Bana is expected to present the names of his desired coaching staff for approval to the Technical Council. The first coordination camp will begin on October 4. In the World Championships in Las Vegas, the team was led by Ahmad Pazaj, who, despite winning a silver medal by Ghasem Rezaei and two bronze medals by Youssef Ghaderian and Habib Akhlaghi, failed to satisfy wrestling enthusiasts. Pazaj had previously led the national team to its first-ever championship in Greco-Roman wrestling history at the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent. Bana stepped down during Yazdani Khoram's presidency after the Doha Asian Games and resumed his responsibilities after the Beijing Olympics. Since the London Olympics, Iranian Greco-Roman wrestling has had eight different head coaches. Mohammad Bana left after the Olympics, and Rasoul Jazini took over the national team at the 2013 World Cup. Then, Abdollah Chamangoli took charge at the Budapest World Championships. This back-and-forth occurred during Hojjatollah Khatib's management of the Wrestling Federation. Under Khadem's presidency, Nasser Norbakhsh became the head coach, and then Mohammad Bana returned. Two weeks before the 2014 World Cup in Tehran, Bana left the camp, and Norbakhsh took over to lead the team to victory. Ahmad Pazaj was the next head coach, who also handed over his position to Bana. At the London Olympics, Bana's team achieved the best result in Iran's Olympic history with three gold medals won by Hamid Soryan, Omid Norouzi, and Ghasem Rezaei. Disagreements between him and the federation president and some members of the Greco-Roman Council led to his departure. It is unclear what the quality of this new cooperation will be, considering the continuation of the Greco-Roman Council's activities with the same former members. Iranian Greco-Roman wrestling has secured three Olympic quotas out of six, with Saeed Abdoli at 75 kg, Habib Akhlaghi at 85 kg, and Ghasem Rezaei at 98 kg, and now with a new head coach, it will strive for three more quotas. Mohammad Bana is a silver medalist from the 1983 World Championships. He has been named Iran's Coach of the Year and received the title of the best coach in the world in 2011. Under Bana, Iran has also won the Greco-Roman World Cup championship three times, in addition to shining at the London Olympics.