2026 World Championships in Astana: Japan’s Gomi Koto Wins Greco-Roman Gold – All 10 Weight Classes Through the MSW Lens

🌏 日本語版はこちら：【2026世界選手権 アスタナ】グレコローマン五味虹登選手が金 ― MSWで読み解く全10階級

Introduction

The 2026 senior World Championships were held in Astana, Kazakhstan. The men’s Greco-Roman competition ran from October 24 to 27 and crowned a world champion in each of the 10 weight classes: 55, 60, 63, 67, 72, 77, 82, 87, 97 and 130kg.

The biggest story for Japan was Gomi Koto’s gold medal at 60kg. Reportedly, Gomi, 22, was competing at his first World Championships when he beat China’s CAO Liguo, a Paris Olympic silver medalist, in the quarterfinal and last year’s champion, SULTANGALI Aidos of Kazakhstan, in the semifinal.

This report uses official UWW data to compare how all 10 gold medalists won their titles, using a metric called MSW. We also review the results in every weight class and the performances of all 10 members of Team Japan.

What Is MSW? A Metric That Uses Match Time to Measure the Quality of a Win

MSW (Most Successful Wrestler) is a metric proposed by Dr. Kristijan Slacanac of UWW Performance Data Analysis. Two gold medals can look identical on paper, even though one wrestler may have won fast and by wide margins while another won a string of close decisions. MSW boils that difference down to a single number.

• MSW = WQ + CPdiff
• WQ — technical-point differential per minute: (total TP scored − total TP conceded) ÷ total match time in minutes.
• CPdiff — classification-point differential per bout: (total CP earned − total CP conceded) ÷ number of bouts. CP depends on how a bout is won: VFA (victory by fall) = 5, VSU (victory by technical superiority, an 8-point lead in Greco-Roman) = 4, VPO (victory by points) = 3. A trailing 1, as in VSU1 or VPO1, means the losing wrestler also scored and receives 1 CP.

In short, WQ rewards how fast a lead was built, and CPdiff rewards how high-grade the wins were. The more a wrestler builds big leads in little time and finishes with falls or technical superiority, the higher the MSW climbs.

This time, the official UWW bout-by-bout records include match times, so we calculated MSW in its original form, with no estimated values. Match time is the match-clock time at the end of each bout. A win on points (VPO or VPO1) is recorded as 6:00 in the official data, and we used that figure as it stands. Bouts that end in a withdrawal or disqualification are not truly contested, so they are excluded from the calculation. This time, the only such bout is HEDAYATI’s qualification bout.

MSW Ranking of the Gold Medalists

The 10 gold medalists, ranked by MSW from highest to lowest.

Note: TP is the total of technical points scored, and CP is the total of classification points earned through the manner of each win. MSW is calculated from the bout-by-bout records in the official UWW data and rounded to two decimal places. HEDAYATI’s MSW is calculated from four bouts, excluding one qualification bout that ended after 0:11 when his opponent withdrew with an injury.

Key Takeaways

1. No. 1 is Iran’s Hedayati at 130kg: MSW 8.88

Iran’s HEDAYATI Fardin finished first with an MSW of 8.88, about 2.8 points ahead of No. 2 SOHRABI Danial (6.11). Across four bouts he scored 34 technical points and conceded none, with a CP line of 16-0. His four bouts lasted 6 minutes 58 seconds in total, and the final, an 8-0 technical-superiority win, took only 42 seconds.

One qualification bout ended after 11 seconds, when his opponent withdrew with an injury (VIN). That bout was not actually contested, and including it would shorten his total time sharply, so we excluded it from the MSW calculation. Even with that bout included, his MSW is 9.51, and he still ranks first.

2. Gomi Koto ranks 8th of 10 at 3.85

Gomi’s MSW of 3.85 is made up of a WQ of 0.85 and a CPdiff of 3.00.

His first bout, in the round of 16, was a 12-4 victory by technical superiority (VSU1) in 2:39. His quarterfinal and semifinal, however, went the full six minutes and were decided on points (7-1 and 5-1). In the final he trailed 5-7 and won by fall at 4:13.

Over four bouts he outscored his opponents by 16 technical points (29-13). Dividing that by his total time of 18:52 gives the WQ of 0.85. The fall in the final earned him the maximum 5 CP, but the technical points stood at 5-7 in his opponent’s favor, so that bout counts as minus 2 in the WQ calculation. His CPdiff of 3.00 matches that of AZIZLI at 55kg and SULEYMANOV at 77kg, and his MSW is practically level with No. 9 NOVIKOV (3.84).

MSW is a metric that rewards winning by big margins in short time. It does nothing to diminish what Gomi accomplished: he beat strong opponents one after another and won the final with a come-from-behind fall.

3. Iran takes four golds out of 10

Iran won four weight classes: 130, 72, 67 and 82kg. Three of the top four MSW scores also belong to Iranians (HEDAYATI first, SOHRABI second and ESMAEILI fourth), and FAROKHISENJANI at 82kg is sixth. HEDAYATI and SOHRABI did not concede a single technical point in any of their bouts.

The other six golds went to Azerbaijan (55 and 77kg), Armenia (63kg), Japan (60kg), Bulgaria (87kg) and Belarus (97kg).

4. The lowest MSW: Belarus’s Maskevich at 97kg (2.54)

All four of MASKEVICH Kiryl’s bouts went the full six minutes and ended in decisions (VPO1). The scores were 7-3, 5-4, 7-5 and 7-1. He gave up points in every bout, and he won every one of them to reach the gold medal. NOVIKOV Semen at 87kg also won four straight six-minute decisions after a first-bout fall to take his title (MSW 3.84).

Weight-Class Highlights

Gold, silver and bronze in all 10 weight classes, with the score and type of each final. Scores list the winner’s points first, and countries are UWW codes.

Highlights from each weight class:

• 55kg (23 entries): AZIZLI won his first two bouts by technical superiority (1:43 and 1:45). His semifinal and final were six-minute decisions. His MSW of 4.49 ranks fifth.
• 60kg (24 entries): Gomi took the title. In the final he trailed 5-7 and won by fall at 4:13. The bronze-medal match featured the two men Gomi had beaten in the quarterfinal and semifinal, CAO (CHN) and SULTANGALI (KAZ), and SULTANGALI won it 5-1.
• 63kg (26 entries): ASLANYAN won his first four bouts, every one of them by technical superiority (VSU or VSU1), including a 0:40 finish in the round of 16. He took the final 8-4 on points, and his MSW of 6.04 ranks third.
• 67kg (31 entries): ESMAEILI finished the final with a fall at 2:22 (8-0). His quarterfinal (7-2) and semifinal (1-1) were won on points.
• 72kg (27 entries): SOHRABI did not concede a single point in four bouts (32-0) and won his first three by technical superiority. His MSW of 6.11 ranks second.
• 77kg (31 entries): SULEYMANOV beat Japan’s HORIKITA Isami 8-0 (2:18) in his first bout, the qualification round, and then went all the way to gold.
• 82kg (25 entries): FAROKHISENJANI won the round of 16 by fall (4:18) and the quarterfinal by technical superiority. His semifinal (3-3) and final (7-1) were won on points, and his MSW of 4.38 ranks sixth.
• 87kg (32 entries, the largest field of the 10 classes): NOVIKOV won his first bout, the round of 32, by fall (2:23). After that he won four straight six-minute decisions. The final score was 4-0.
• 97kg (28 entries): All four of MASKEVICH’s bouts were decisions (VPO1), and the final was 7-1.
• 130kg (26 entries): HEDAYATI finished the final 8-0 by technical superiority in just 42 seconds.

Team Japan Results

Japan sent 10 wrestlers. Here are the results of the nine besides Gomi. Scores list the Japanese wrestler’s points first.

• 55kg, OKAMOTO Kagetora: He lost his qualification bout (first round) 2-5 to KURBAYEV (KAZ), who went on to win bronze.
• 63kg, TANABE Kaisei: He won his qualification bout and the round of 16 by 9-0 technical superiority both times (2:57 and 2:27). In the quarterfinal he lost 1-10 to EMELIN (RUS). Because EMELIN then lost in the semifinal, TANABE did not get a place in the repechage. EMELIN won a bronze medal.
• 67kg, ENDO Katsuaki: He lost his qualification bout (first round) 0-9 by technical superiority (1:49) to CHKHIKVADZE (GEO).
• 72kg, SOGABE Rintaro: He beat KARANJIT (IND) 3-2 in the qualification bout, then lost 4-9 to GANIZADE (AZE) in the round of 16.
• 77kg, HORIKITA Isami: He lost his qualification bout 0-8 to SULEYMANOV (AZE), who went on to win the gold medal, and moved into the repechage. In the first repechage round he beat YAO (TPE) on points after a 5-5 tie, but he lost 1-6 to NAKIBOV (UZB) in the second round.
• 82kg, FUJII Tatsuya: He won his qualification bout against BERNAL MOLINA (CHI), 9-1 (5:30). In the round of 16 he lost 0-9 to BRADU (MDA), who later won a bronze medal.
• 87kg, SAKABE Soh: He lost his first-round bout 1-3 to STJEPANETIC (SWE).
• 97kg, TSURUDA Takahiro: He lost his qualification bout (first round) 1-4 to RAGGINGER (AUT).
• 130kg, NARA Yuta: He lost his qualification bout (first round) 0-9 by technical superiority (0:46) to SOTNIKOV (ITA).

Closing

For Japan, Gomi Koto’s gold was the biggest story of the men’s Greco-Roman competition at the 2026 World Championships. His MSW of 3.85 ranks eighth of the 10 gold medalists, but he won the final by turning a 5-7 deficit into a fall. Standing on top of the world is a fact that this ranking does not change.

MSW is one yardstick for understanding the substance of a win. We hope you will use it not to decide who is better, but to learn how each bout was won.

The championships run through November 1. Let’s all cheer on Team Japan to the very end!

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