Iran’s Mehdi Ahmad-Kohani grabbed a prestigious silver medal at the first of the 2023 FIG Apparatus World Cup series in Cottbus, Germany.
Representing the country at the rings event, Ahmad-Kohani tallied 14.766 points in the final to finish next to Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias – a winner of two Olympic medals, including the ultimate prize at Rio 2016, and three World Championships golds.
Armenian Artur Avetisyan settled for the bronze medal.
The competition in Cottbus was the first of four FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series that will determine the 2023 champions based on a point system that takes placements at individual World Cup events into account, in addition to serving as an individual qualification for the Antwerp Worlds.
 The series head to Doha (March 1) and Baku (March 9) before wrapping up in the Egyptian capital of Cairo by the end of April.