Icho, competing at her first event since December, looked in commanding form from the outset and enjoyed a flawless performance on her way to beating Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan in the final.

The result continued the Japanese star’s supreme winning streak as she proved too strong for world number 13 Tynybekova, who was returning from a nasty elbow dislocation injury she suffered in January.

In the bronze medal matches, Aiym Abdildina of Kazakhstan beat South Korean Kim Kyeong-eun, while Geeta Geeta of India also triumphed by beating Thi Loan Nguyen of Vietnam.

Elsewhere, Mongolia’s Erdenebat Bekhbayar upset the odds by taking gold in the men’s 57kg division thanks to a victory over Samat Nadyrbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan.

Bekhbayar reached the final by virtue of a surprise win against world number one and highly-fancied Jong Hak-jin of North Korea, whose miserable outing was complete when he lost to Japan’s Fumitaka Morishita in the bronze medal contest.

Iran's Younes Firouz Sarmastidizaji sealed the other bronze available with a win against Nodirjon Safarov of Uzbekistan.

The Iranian team enjoyed a particularly fruitful day as they took two of the three remaining gold medals on an action-packed opening day.

Masoud Esmailpoor got the ball rolling for his nation as he sealed a narrow victory over Japan’s Tomotsugu Ishida in the men’s under 65kg division.

Esmailpoor is ranked number two in the world in the 61kg division but was unphased by the step-up in weight class as he clinched the title by the tightest of margins, while Ganzorigiin Mandakhnaran of Mongolia and Uzbekistan's Ruslan Pliev took bronze.

Alireza Karimimachiani then built on his team mate’s success as he controlled the 85kg final against Atsushi Matsumoto of Japan with a comfortable 6-3 win to take gold, and Uzbekistan's Umidjon Ismanov and Mongolian Purevee Usukhbaatar also secured spots on the podium by claiming bronze.

Iran were however unable to complete a hat-trick of titles as Kyrgyzstan’s Aiaal Lazarev overcame second-ranked Khomeil Ghasemi in the men’s under 125kg final.

Lazarev’s superb victory ensured his nation eventually topped the podium after Kyrgyz wrestlers had suffered defeats in two gold medal contests earlier in the day, while there was also success for Zhiwei Deng of China and Farkhod Anakulov, who managed to claim an excellent bronze for Tajikistan.

Action in the Qatari capital continues tomorrow with the men’s freestyle 61kg, 70kg, 74kg and 97kg categories and women’s under 48kg divisions.

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