Iran wins men’s kumite gold, finishes third at Asian Karate Championship
Iranian men’s kumite team won the gold medal at the Asian Karate Championship as the country stood third at the 19th edition of the competitions in Melaka, Malaysia.
On Sunday, the Iranian five-man side, which had won the Asian gold on four occasions since 2017, made a quick work of Kazakhstan in the final showdown as Saleh Abazari, Mahmoud Ne’mati, and Mehdi Ashouri came out on top against their opponents to seal a 3-0 victory – taking the country’s medal count for the day to three.
A 2-0 defeat against Vietnam saw Iran take the women’s team kumite silver, while in the men’s team kata, the Iranian trio of Abolfazl Shahrjerdi, Ali Zand, and Milad Farazmehr won a bronze medal – scoring 40.6 points to beat China, which finished on 39.3.
This was a second bronze medal at the competitions for Shahrjerdi, who came out victorious against the Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chao-Ching to share the third podium of the individual kata event with South Korean Park Hee-jun.
Kazakhstan stood atop the medals table with three golds, four silvers, and four silvers.
Japan and Iran also won three golds apiece, but the Japanese piped the Iranians to the runner-up spot after grabbing three silvers against Iran’s two.
The final day results came after Iranians had bagged nine medals – including double kumite golds – earlier in the individual contests in Melaka.
Atousa Golshadnejad – a member of the silver-winning kumite team – defeated opponents from Jordan, Kazakhstan, and China and then beat Sarah al-Ameri of the United Arab Emirates 3-0 for the ultimate prize of the women’s -61kg weight class.
Behnam Dehqanzadeh, meanwhile, was the only Iranian gold medalist in the men’s kumite contests – thanks to a thrilling 7-4 victory over Jordanian Omar Shaqrah in the -55kg final.
There were however rather disappointing campaigns for two high-profile Iranian men, Bahman Asgari and Sajjad Ganjzadeh.
Four-time world gold medalist Asgari, who missed out on the Tokyo Olympics due to a positive doping test, beat Sultan al-Zahrani of Saudi Arabia for a place in the men’s -75kg final, before a 3-2 setback against Kazakhstan’s Nurkanat Azhikanov brought him a seventh Asian medal.
Tokyo Olympic champion Ganjzadeh eased to successive victories over participants from Macau and Indonesia but came short against Saudi karateka Tareg Hamedi, whom the Iranian beat for the Olympic gold.
Ganjzadeh still managed to get back to winning ways in the repechage bouts and defeated Emirati Sulaiman al-Mulla 5-0 for a joint-third place alongside Abylay Toltay of Kazakhstan in the +84kg event – a 12th Asian medal for the Iranian.
Two-time world champion Amir Mehdizadeh also had to settle for a joint third-spot finish in the men’s -67kg event.
The Iranian, who has double Asian golds under his belt, bounced back from a third-round defeat to beat Palestinian Mahmoud Daifallah (2-0) and Mohammad aL-Otaibi of Kuwait (3-2) for the bronze.
Elsewhere, Sara Bahmanyar (-50kg) and Fatemeh Sa’adati (-55kg) won two women’s kumite bronzes for the country, while Fatemeh Sadeqi took a third Asian kata bronze of her career.
Meanwhile, the second edition of the Asian Para Karate Championship took place in Melaka, where Iran was crowned the champion, courtesy of five medals.
Ma’soumeh Eiji, Rahim Golmohammadi, Abolfazl Chehreh-Qani, and Farzad Safavi collected four gold medals, with Hafez Hafezikia taking a bronze, as Iran beat Kazakhstan to the title.
Kazakhstan scooped two golds and silvers apiece, while Saudi Arabia finished third with one gold, three silvers and five bronze medals.