Iran’s Hajimousaei wins World Taekwondo GP gold
The first day of the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Paris saw Iranian Mahdi Hajimousaei walk away with a precious gold to take a massive step toward securing a berth in next year’s Olympic Games in the French capital.
The stage was set for an all-Iranian showdown, featuring Hajimousaei and his fellow 19-year-old Abolfazl Zandi, in the men’s -58kg contests, before the latter withdrew from the bout to make sure Hajimousaei would earn 60 qualification points for the Olympics – moving up by five spots in the latest World Rankings to stand in the 15th place.
Hajimousaei caused a major upset earlier in the event by a victory over Italian Vito Dell’Aquila – a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics and last year’s World Championships – in straight rounds and went on to beat Australian Bailey Lewis for a place in the final.
Beaten by Hajimousaei in June’s Grand Prix semifinals in Rome, Zandi also enjoyed an impressive run on Friday as he outpowered South Koreans Jun Jang and Park Tae-joon – third and fourth in the World Rankings respectively – and then came out victorious against Tunisian world number one Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi – silver winner in Tokyo – in the last-four bout.
Elsewhere on Friday, Iranian teenage girl Mobina Ne’matzadeh got off to a brave start against Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Adriana Cerezo of Spain in the -49kg semis, winning the first round, but eventually fell to a 2-1 defeat and settled for a joint bronze – alongside China’s Xiaolu Wang.
Turkey’s Merve Dincel defeated the Spaniard for the ultimate prize.