Iranians grab 10 medals, finish runner-up in Asian Poomsae Championships
Iran collected 10 medals to stand second in the team table at the Asian Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Da Nang, Vietnam.
Taekwondo powerhouse South Korea lifted the team trophy at the eighth edition of the competition, with the Chinese Taipei finishing third.
The second day of the event saw the Iranians claim three medals – including one gold – across different age groups.
Hossein Beheshti, Mahdi Jamali, and Ali Salmani teamed up to beat the host’s trio to the ultimate prize in the men’s team over-30 event.
This was a second medal for Beheshti on Monday following a silver in the mixed pair over-30 contest alongside Atousa Farahmand, with Marjan Taji and Yassin Zandi settling for a bronze in the under-30 class.
Represented by nine athletes in Da Nang, Iran had picked up seven medals on the opening day.
Mahdiyeh Oqbaei won a first gold medal for Iran, thanks to a victory over South Korean Hana Lee in the women’s under-40 final, while Yasaman Limouchi also finished her campaign on a high with a gold in the women’s freestyle over-17 event.
Elsewhere in the women’s contests, Farahmand took the individual under-50 silver.
In the men’s draw, Zandi was unlucky to finish as the individual unde-30 runner-up after a controversial defeat against South Korea’s Kang Wan-jin in the final showpiece.
Jamali also finished Day 1 with a silver, coming short against Park Yong-hwa of South Korea in the under-40 final.
Salmani and Mohammad-Taqi Hatami added a couple of bronze medals to Iranian men’s medal count, standing on the third podium in the under-50 and under-60 competitions respectively.
The Asian Championships will continue with the kyorugi contests today, where reigning world champion Nahid Kiani (-53kg) and Saeideh Nasri (-46kg) will kick off Iranian women’s team title defense in Da Nang.
Abolfazl Zandi (-54kg) and Matin Rezaei (-63kg) will be in men’s action as the six-time champion Iran will begin its quest for a first team crown since 2018.
Iranian Olympian Mahdi Haji Mousaei (-58kg) will be joined by Amir-Sina Bakhtiari (-74kg), and Mohammad-Hossein Yazdani (-87kg) in the men’s bouts on Friday, with teenage prodigy Mobina Ne’matzadeh (-49kg), Elham Haqiqi (-62kg), and Melika Mirhosseini (-73kg) getting their campaigns underway in the women’s competitions.
Ali Khoshravesh, replacing injured captain Mirhashem Hosseini, will fight for the men’s -80kg glory on Saturday, along with Aryan Salimi, who will take part in the +87kg weight class ahead of Olympic participation in the summer.
Yalda Valinejad (-67kg) will be the sole Iranian girl in action on the final day of the kyorugi competitions, which will be followed by the Asian Para Taekwondo Championships on Sunday.