Roman Vlasov won the Greco-Roman 77kg gold medal ©Getty Images

Russia won three of the first five gold medals awarded at the United World Wrestling (UWW) Individual World Cup in Belgrade, with Olympic champion Roman Vlasov among the victors.

There were five Greco-Roman finals held at the event today, which is taking place in lieu of the World Championships, which the Serbian capital was due to host before they were called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Emin Sefershaev, whose path to the 55-kilogram final included defeating former world champion Eldaniz Azizli of Azerbaijan, beat Turkey's Serif Kilic to win the first gold medal of the UWW Individual World Cup, and Russia's first.

Azizli and Alergia's Abdelkarim Fergat, the African champion, won bronze medals.

Russian Nazir Abdullaev beat Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games gold medallist Islambek Dadov of Azerbaijan to earn the 67kg gold medal, a day after knocking out Serbia's Olympic champion Davor Štefanek in what transpired to be the final bout of Štefanek's career.

Pole Roman Pacurkowski and Slavik Galstyan of Armenia won bronze medals, with the latter's medal the same colour as the won he earned in the 63kg contest at last year's World Championships.

At 72kg, Hungarian Bálint Korpási - a world champion in 2016 and four-time World Championship medallist - beat 21-year-old Armenian Malkhas Amoyan in the final, with Cengiz Arslan of Turkey and Kyrgyzstan's Ruslan Tsarev winning bronze medals.

Back-to-back Olympic champion Vlasov reigned supreme at 77kg, seeing off European silver medalist Zoltan Levai of Hungary.

There was home joy in the minor-medal matches, as ex-world champion Viktor Nemeš won bronze medal for Serbia, along with Alexandrin Gutu of Moldova.

Another Russian Olympic champion, Davit Chakvetadze, could not follow Vlasov's lead as he fell 10-0 to Belarusian Kiryl Maskevich in the 87kg final.

Ukraine's European champion Semen Novikov - who beat Iran's Asian Games champion Hossein Nouri - and Serbia's Zurabi Datunashvili took home bronze medals.

More gold medals could well be in store for Russia, as five more Russian wrestlers - including Rio 2016 bronze medallist Sergey Semenov - have qualified for tomorrow's Greco-Roman finals.