Iran completes lineup for world table tennis meet
Iran named the five-man squad for the 2024 World Team Table Tennis Championships – starting February 16 in Busan, South Korea.
Mohammad Mousavi and Matin Heydari finished as the top two after 13 rounds of matches in the national team trails to book a place at world event, which will also serve as part of the qualifiers for next year’s Paris Olympics.
The Iranian duo will be joined by Amirhossein Hodaei, Nima Alamian, and Noshad Alamian, who will step into the competition fresh from an impressive run in the Hangzhou Asian Games in October, where they brought the country’s 65-year wait for a table tennis medal at the event to an end.
The trio finished second to Hong Kong in the group before defeating Vietnam and Japan – Olympic bronze winner on home soil two years ago – to progress into the semifinals.
A last-four defeat against South Korea saw Iran settle for a joint team bronze alongside the Chinese Taipei.
Alamian brothers then teamed up to beat the Japanese duo of Mizuki Oikawa and Taisei Matsushita in the men’s doubles quarterfinals, but their fairy tale in Hangzhou came to an end in the semifinals, where a loss to the host’s Fan Zhendong – a team gold medalist in Tokyo Olympics – and Wang Chuqin sealed bronze medal for Iran.