Asian Indoor Athletics Championships:
Teenage Aqaei grabs men’s 400m gold; Iranian girls post 800m one-two
Teenage sprinter Sajjad Aqaei notched up a first men’s gold for Iran at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tehran on Sunday, while his compatriots Totktam Dastar-Bandan and Negin Azari Edalat claimed the women’s 800m gold and silver respectively.
Representing the country in the men’s 400m final, Aqaei, 18, crossed the finish line in 47.95 seconds to beat Mohammad Jahir Rayhan of Bangladesh, who clocked 48.10 seconds, to the ultimate prize, with Iraq’s Yasir Ali Al-Saadi taking the bronze on 48.40 seconds.
“It was a dream come true to win this medal at such a young age,” Aqaei said after the final, adding: “I trained so hard over the past year to prepare for this competition. I knew I had a chance to win a medal before the tournament but I never thought it would be a gold.”
Meanwhile, Dastar-Bandan registered the fastest time of 2:09.17 minutes in Monday’s showdown for Iranian women’s second gold at the event on home soil – following Farzaneh Fasihi, who retained her 60m crown on the preceding day.
Azari clocked 2:11.43 minutes to finish as the runner-up, while Nurmamet Akbayan (2:13.10 min.) of Kazakhstan settled for the bronze.
Elsewhere in the women’s contests, Nazanin Eidian and Kazhan Rostami added a silver and a bronze to Iran’s medal haul, finishing behind Japanese Nanako Matsumoto in the 400m final.
Eidian registered 55.33 seconds to finish second to Japan’s Nanako Matsumoto (55.14 seconds) with Rostami crossing the line in 55.35 seconds.
Male contestants Ali Amirian (1500m) and Mahdi Saberi (shot put), as well as Elham Hashemi in the women’s shot put, were the Iranian bronze winners over the first two days of the championships in Tehran’s Aftab-e Enghelab Sports Complex.