Asian Indoor Athletics Championships:
Girls shine as Iran scoops 16 medals on home soil
Iranian girls took credit for nine of the country’s 16 medals at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tehran.
The three-day event in the capital’s Aftab-e Enghelab Sports Complex was one to remember for sprinter Farzaneh Fasihi, who retained her 60m crown thanks to a championship record-equaling time of 7.20 seconds – also a new national high – in the final.
Meanwhile, Iranians Toktam Dastarbandan and Negin Azari Edalat posted a one-two in the women’s 800m final, with the former shattering the national record with 2:09.17 minutes.
Fatemeh Mohitizadeh scored 3970 points to grab the women’s pentathlon silver, while Nazanin Eidian finished second to Japanese Nanako Matsumoto in the women’s 400m final – followed by fellow-Iranian Kazhan Rostami, who took the bronze.
Eidian and Rostami then collected their second medals when they teamed up with Shahla Mahmoudi and Maryam Mohebi for the 4×400m relay silver.
Mahsa Mirzatabibi’s new national record of 4.10m sealed the pole vault bronze for the Iranian girl, with Elham Hashemi finishing on the third podium in the women’s shot put contest.
In the men’s competitions, teenage sensation Sajjad Aqaei was the only Iranian to walk away with the ultimate prize of his respective event, clocking 47.95 seconds in the 400m final.
Sobhan Ahmadi (800m) Amir Zamanpour (3000m) were the Iranian silver medalists, with Ali Amirian (1500m), Mahdi Saberi (shot put), and Amir-Mahdi Hanifeh (heptathlon) adding three bronzes to Iran’s medal haul.
The country’s 4×400m relay team – comprising Aqaei, Amirian, Arash Sayyari, and Mohammadreza Talei – also won a bronze behind Kazakhstan and Iraq.
The results saw Iran settle for the fourth spot in the medal table, though it still went down as a massive improvement on last year’s edition in Astana, where the country left the event with a single medal through Fasihi’s gold.
China dominated the table with eight golds, six silvers, and one bronze.
Japan and Kazakhstan collected four golds apiece, but the former finished as the runner-up with four silvers against the Central Asian country’s two.