Iranian Salimi on double major medals and Olympic ambitions
Mahdieh Qazvinian
Staff writer
The failure in making one last push toward the ultimate prize at the Hangzhou Asian Games turned out to become the familiar story for the Iranian taekwondo squad, giving a the country’s governing body of the sport a reality check ahead of next summer’s Paris Olympics.
While Matin Rezaei and Mehran Barkhordari left China with a couple of bronze medals, Mahdi Hajimousaei, Alireza Hosseinpour, and Arian Salimi had to settle for a finish on the second podium in their respective weight classes – eventually leading to the men’s head coach Bijan Moghanlou stepping down from his role after the event.
However, Salimi, 19, believes the final outcome in Hangzhou could go down as a success for the Iranian men’s taekwondo, which had won double golds – coupled with a silver and bronze medals apiece – in the previous edition of the Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang 2018.
“All countries brought their full-strength squads to the Asian Games, but every member of our team still managed to win a medal. We had three finalists across five weight divisions, and I’m sure we would have won at least two golds, had it not been for some controversial decisions by the referees,” Salimi told Iran Daily.
The young Iranian had a decent run en route to the final in Hangzhou – beating opponents from the Philippines, Jordan, and the Chinese Taipei – only to suffer a 2-1 defeat against the host’s Song Zhaoxiang in a thrilling +80kg showdown, in which the two contestants scored a remarkable 96 points between them.
“The opponent had the support of the home crowd, but I was in full control of the final, except for the final 10 seconds of the first and the deciding rounds. That’s where the result was settled,” Salimi said of his bout against the two-time world bronze winner.
“He was very smart and made the most of his opportunities, not to mention I had six points chalked off by the refs in the closing seconds. I could still have won the final but I made some mistakes, which I can’t afford to repeat in the future events,” added the Iranian teenager.
The Asian Games silver rounded off an impressive four months for Salimi, who, at such a young age, already has two major international medals under his belt – following the joint bronze he grabbed at May’s World Championships in Baku.
Salimi overcame some high-profile contestants – including Spaniard Raúl Martínez – before falling to a defeat in a last-four thriller against South Korea’s Kang Sang-hyun, who went on to snatch the 87kg gold, thanks to a victory over Croatian Ivan Šapina.
“For some reasons, I was not in my best mental conditions and I also had to deal with a minor injury through the competition, which kept me from delivering my best performance against the South Korean opponent, whom I had beaten in the Grand Slam series last year,” Salimi said of his campaign in Baku.
Salimi said he has now set his sights on securing a quota for next year’s Paris Olympics.
“I will give it my best shot to seal the berth for the Olympics and then win a medal in Paris. I’m currently the number one in the Grand Slam ranking and will have to retain my position when this year’s event gets underway in December [in Wuxi, China] to boost my chances of qualification for the Olympics.”