Iranian girls crowned world taekwondo cadet champions
Iran bagged three gold and silver medals apiece to claim the girls’ title at the World Taekwondo Cadet Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Hana Zarrinkamar brought the curtain down on a glorious campaign for the Iranian girls in the Bosnian capital on Thursday, coming out on top against Australian Akon Baak in emphatic fashion in the final showpiece of the +176cm class.
The Iranian eased to a first-round victory with 30 seconds left on the clock and then landed two consecutive head kicks in the first 10 seconds of the second period and went on to win by a point gap.
Ayla Jalil, meanwhile, had to settle for a silver in the girls’ -176cm event after suffering a final defeat against Serbian Vanja Rankov.
Thursday’s results came after Rojan Soufi (-168cm) and Seyyedeh Kimia Mohammadi (-172cm) had walked away with the ultimate prize of their respective classes earlier in Sarajevo, with Helia Ebrahimian (-164cm) and Kowsar Ojaqlou (-156cm) adding a couple of silvers to Iran’s medal haul.
Iran was followed in the girls standing by South Korea and Kazakhstan, while there was further glory for the country as Niloufar Saffarian was named the Best Female Coach in the fifth edition of the competitions.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Mohammad-Hossein Taqipour outclassed Russian Nikita Gubanov, representing the Individual Neutral Athletes, in straight rounds (12-5, 11-3) in the +180cm final, capturing a first gold for Iran in the boys’ contests.
Seyyed Mir-Abbas Hosseinifar (-172cm) and Yasan Ja’fari (-160cm) had finished their campaigns with double bronzes as Iran finished fifth in the boys table.
Kazakhstan won the boys’ title, with Uzbekistan, Italy, and South Korea in the following spots respectively.