A number of top Iranian sports officials attended the ceremony held at Ibn-e Babawayh cemetery, where Takhti was laid to rest after being found dead aged 37 in a hotel room in January 1968.

Mohammad Reza Yazdani-Khorram, former President of the Iran Wrestling Federation, was present along with Bahram Afsharzadeh, chairman of Esteghlal Tehran Football Club, and Mohammad Ali Shojaei, President of the Iran Archery Federation.  

Veteran wrestlers and several hundred people were also in attendance at the annual commemoration.

Takhti claimed gold in the under 87 kilogram light heavyweight division at the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games, where he defeated the Soviet Union's Boris Kulayev in the final.

He had stepped up a weight division for the Games having secured Iran’s first-ever Olympic silver medal four years earlier at middleweight in Helsinki.

Takhti backed up his gold medal-winning success in Melbourne with another silver medal at the Rome 1960 Olympics, establishing himself as one of Iran's greatest athletes.

He also won World Championship gold medals in 1959 and 1961, and top honours at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo. 

The Takhti Cup tournament is held annually in Tehran in memory of the wrestler.

Iran has racked up 38 medals in Olympic wrestling, making it the nation's most successful sport at the Games, followed by weightlifting with 16. 

The country is the 11th most successful in Olympic wrestling, having won eight gold medals.