ISTANBUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The first medals of the 2011 world wrestling championship were awarded in Istanbul on Monday night in the men's 55, 66 and 96kg categories in the Greco-Roman categories.

In the 55kg class, the gold went to Azerbaijan's Rovshan Bayramov, the silver to Elbek Tazhyieu of Belarus and the bronze to China's Shujin Li and Russia's Bekkhan Mankiev.

In the 66kg class, the gold went to Iran's Saeid Abdvali, with the silver to Manuchar Tskhadia of Georgia and the bronze to Hyeon-Woo Kim of South Korea and Pedro Mullens Herrera of Cuba.

In the 96kg class, the gold was won by Bulgaria's Elis Guri, and the silver went to Jimmy Alexander Lidberg of Sweden and the bronze to Cenk Ildem of Turkey and Rustam Totrov of Russia.

The competition is being held at Istanbul's Sinan Erdem Dome in the men's freestyle, men's Greco-Roman and women wrestling, and will run through Sept. 18.

The top six in each Olympic weight category will secure a place for their teams at the London 2012 Olympics.

At the end of the championship, the nationality of the first 108 participants in the Olympic Games will be known with 42 qualified wrestlers in freestyle, 42 in Greco-Roman, and 24 in women wrestling.

Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Senegal, Kazakhstan, Japan, Ukraine and Turkey are the countries with participants in every available category.