Peak tops Olympic champion, Hafizov makes repechage at Senior World Championships

TIRANA, Albania – Benji Peak got the U.S. off to an incredible start in the Greco-Roman division at the 2024 Senior World Championships with a technical fall win over Tokyo Olympic champion Mohammadreza Geraei of Iran.

Geraei scored the first points of the match with an arm drag takedown in the first 30 seconds. It was all Peak thereafter. Peak came back with a takedown from underhook pressure and a low-gutwrench lift, that included a defensive leg foul against Geraei, to take a 6-2 lead. In the early stages of the second period, Peak countered a Geraei high dive attempt for his second takedown, and ended the match moments later with a third takedown coming off a Geraei desperation throw attempt.

The 11-3 win over Geraei is without question the biggest win of Peak’s young international career. Unfortunately, Peak couldn’t keep the momentum going in the next round. He was upended by Croatia’s Dominik Etlinger, 9-0. Etlinger lost in the quarterfinals, knocking Peak out of the tournament.

The remainder of Team USA combined to go 0-3 on Monday morning at Tirana’s Feti Borova Sports Hall. Two-time Olympian Ildar Hafizov is the only American who was pulled into repechage following the Monday evening semifinal round.

Hafizov was defeated 9-0 by reigning European champion Nihat Mammadli of Azerbaijan in the first round at 63 kg. The match ended in just under two minutes with Mammadli getting the first chance on top from passivity and converting on multiple gutwrench attacks to gain the technical fall. Mammadli was able to win his semifinal against Karen Aslanyan of Armenia and pull Hafizov back into the tournament. He will face 2019 U20 World champion Abu Amaev of Bulgaria in the repechage on Tuesday morning.

2009 World bronze medalist Aliaksandr Kikiniou and two-time World Team member Brady Koontz both held the lead entering the second period of their matches but were unable to finish on top. Kikiniou dropped a 5-1 decision to Per Albin Olofsson of Sweden at 82 kg. Koontz was defeated 5-3 by Sanjeev Sanjeev of India at 55 kg.

The Senior World Championships continue at 6 p.m. local time with the Greco-Roman semifinals. For those planning to follow along live, Tirana, Albania, is located five hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

Updated brackets and match-by-match results are available on UWW Arena. A live broadcast of the event is available for the U.S. market at FloWrestling.com.

Revisit the details of each U.S. match from today in our day one match notes article.