Iran’s Rezaei wins Asian canoe gold, books Olympic berth
Iranian Mohammad-Nabi Rezaei won a gold medal at the Asian Canoe Sprint Championships in Tokyo, Japan, to punch his ticket for the Paris Olympics in July.
Representing the country in the men’s C-1 1000m final on Sunday, Rezaei clocked 4:10.980 minutes to beat Lai Kuan-chieh of the Chinese Taipei to the ultimate prize, with China’s Miao Feilong taking the bronze.
This was a third medal for Iranian men in the championships following Ali Aqamirzaei’s double bronze-winning campaigns in the K-1 200m and 1000m events – with the latter success securing him a second Olympic berth after the Tokyo Games three years ago – as the country finished sixth in the team table.
Kazakhstan topped the standing with 11 medals – including sixth golds – followed by Uzbekistan (10 medals, three golds) and China (four medals, two golds.)
Meanwhile, Iranian female rowers won a couple of Olympic quotas in the Asian and Oceanian qualification event in Chungju, South Korea.
Two-time Asian under-23 gold medalist Fatemeh Mojallal, who was part of the quadruple sculls team that won a silver in last year’s Asian Games, secured a spot in the French capital thanks to a third-place finish in women’s single sculls event.
Zeinab Norouzi and Mahsa Javer also built on a decent performance in the Asian Games, which saw the duo leave Hangzhou with a couple of silver medals, to finish as the runner-up in the double sculls contest and book their Paris tickets.