Semen Novikov of Bulgaria has won the world title in Greco-Roman wrestling at 87kg in Astana, Kazakhstan. He beat Iran's Alireza Mohmadipiani 4-0 in the final.

It is Bulgaria's first Greco-Roman world title in 13 years, since Ivo Angelov won in 2013.

Bulgaria has three medals from the championships, which run until 1 November: one gold and two bronze. The bronze medals went to Kiril Milov and Bilyana Dudova.

Novikov, 28, and Mohmadipiani also met in the Olympic final in Paris in 2024, which the Bulgarian also won.

In the first minute the referee warned Novikov for passivity, then the Iranian. With 4 minutes 19 seconds left, Novikov took his rival down on the mat and led 1-0. His attempt at a suplex (lifting and throwing over the chest) failed, and the break came with the score unchanged.

After the 30-second break, Novikov pushed the Iranian out of the mat area for 2-0 and stopped a diving attack. In the last 10 seconds he counterattacked, got behind the Iranian and sealed the win.

It was his first world final. He was first left out of the national squad by the previous federation leadership, but joined the team at the last moment.

In the first round Novikov won quickly by a fall against Latana Soupa of American Samoa. Against Azerbaijan's Islam Abbasov, a multiple European medallist, he trailed 5-4 but took his rival down in the last 10 seconds and won 6-5. He then beat Georgia's Lasha Gobadze, the 2019 world champion, 3-0.

In the semi-final against Uzbekistan's Muhammadkodir Rasulov, Novikov took a hard head blow to the face and began to bleed. After medical treatment he carried on with a bandage around his head and won 2-0.

Novikov has Olympic gold from Paris 2024 and world bronze from Belgrade in 2023. For Bulgaria he also won European silver in 2025 and European bronze in 2023. He previously competed for Ukraine, and won the European title with them in 2020.

Kiril Milov won Bulgaria's first medal, a bronze at 97kg in Greco-Roman. In the bronze-medal match he beat Austria's Markus Ragginger 10-0 on technical superiority. In the first period he made two throws from the par terre position and led 5-0, and the bout ended soon after the restart.

On Sunday Milov won three bouts to reach the semi-final, where he lost 7-5 to Belarus's Kirill Maskevich. It is his third world medal, after two silvers.

Milov told BNT that he was very happy with his performance up to the semi-final and wrestled brilliantly, at his level. He said he led in the first period of the semi-final exactly as he wanted, but he is unhappy with the loss. "In the second period I made a very stupid mistake from a reflex I have practised thousands of times in training," he added.

Bilyana Dudova, the only Bulgarian woman in Astana, won bronze at 62kg with a 4-2 win over Sweden's Johanna Lindborg in the bronze-medal match. The four-time European champion now has three medals from world championships.

Three Bulgarians finished one step short of a medal: Shamil Mamedov at 65kg in freestyle, and Edmond Nazaryan at 63kg and Stoyan Kubatov at 77kg in Greco-Roman.

Akhmed Bataev, the 2022 European runner-up, was knocked out at 92kg in freestyle after one win and one loss. In the first round he beat Ukraine's Mukhaman Aliev 6-5 after a turnaround in the last seconds. In the quarter-final Iran's Amir Firouzpour beat him 7-4. Firouzpour is a three-time Asian champion and finished third in the world last season.

Bataev was out for good after Firouzpour lost 11-8 to Trent Hidlay of the US, the world number one.