Iranian swimmers win four Asian age group medals
The second day of the Asian Age Group Aquatics Championships saw the Iranian swimmers collect four medals, including one gold, in Capas, Philippines.
Representing the country in the men’s 50m freestyle final of the over-18 age group, Samyar Abdoli clocked 22.83 seconds to finish ahead of Uzbekistan’s Eldorbek Usmonov (22.87s) and Qatari swimmer Mohamed Mohamed (22.90s), becoming only the second Iranian to walk away with the ultimate prize in the history of the competition after Mohammad Alirezaei had won a couple of golds in 2005 and 2007.
This was a second medal for Abdoli in Capas, following a 4X100m freestyle relay bronze-winning performance along with Mehrshad Afghari, Homer Abbasi, and Matin Sohran on Day 1.
Having won the boy’s 200m individual medley silver and the 50m backstroke bronze on the preceding night, Mohammad-Mahdi Gholami won a second medal for Iran on Tuesday, when he settled for the silver in the 200m butterfly event of the 13-14 age class, thanks to a second-best time of 2:05.99 minutes.
Vietnam’s Hoang quy Duong grabbed the gold with 2:03.54 minutes, with Yung-cheng Kan of the Chinese Taipei taking the bronze.
Gholami was also part of the Iranian four-boy team – alongside Yashar Soleimani, Rayan Zare’, and Shantia Nazari – that won the bronze in the 4X100m freestyle relay final.
Meanwhile, Afghari finished his men’s 100m butterfly campaign with a bronze, while Kiumars Aslani and Sam Vajer teamed up for a diving bronze, finishing third in the boy’s synchro board level with 232.2 points.
Vajer took his personal tally to two medals on Wednesday, courtesy of a boys’ platform silver with 357.3 points.