Iranian saber team on the verge of Olympic berth
Iranian fencing is inches away from beating Japan to the Asian slot at the saber team contests in the Paris Olympics.
Comprising Ali Pakdaman, Mohammad Rahbari, Farzad Baher, and Mohammad Fotouhi, the Iranian four-man team is currently seventh in the FIE Men’s Team Ranking with 217.00 points – 13 clear of eighth-place Japan.
A decent run in the upcoming one-day Fencing World Cup event in Budapest on March 24 will all but guarantee the Olympic berth for Iran, while Japan will have to finish on the podium to overtake Iran in the global governing body of the sport’s ranking.
A team silver in last June’s Asian Championships as well as the World Cup third-place finish in Madrid made massive contributions to Iran’s tally in the FIE Ranking with 52 and 40 points respectively.
Iran had to settle for the ninth spot in the World Championships in Milan last year but the result was still enough to earn 50 ranking points for the country.
As it stands, South Korea, Hungary, USA, and France will be part of the event in Paris as the top four teams in the ranking, with Italy (fifth), Egypt (ninth), Canada (11th) likely to secure the continental slots.
Iranian captain Pakdaman, meanwhile, is on course for an Olympic quota in the individual saber competitions after standing fifth in the latest world rankings.
The 33-year-old Iranian collected 155.000 points to move up by two spots, with Georgian Sandro Bazadze, Aron Szilagyi of Hungary – a silver medalist in the Tokyo Olympics – Egyptian Ziad Elsissy, and South Korea’s Oh Sang-uk standing first to fourth respectively.
The reigning Asian champion grabbed a first individual medal in five years for the country at the Fencing World Cup in mid-February, when he beat Bazadze to reach the final showdown in Tbilisi, only to settle for the silver after a 15-7 defeat against Szilagyi.