Iranians Alamian, Shahsavari seal table tennis berths for Olympics
Iranian table tennis players Nima Alamian and Neda Shahsavari won a couple of quotas for the country in the singles event of the Paris Olympics in July.
In an all-Iranian men’s final in the Central Asia Regional Qualification event in Tashkent, Alamian came out on top against his brother Noshad 4-1 (11-4, 5-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7) on Sunday to secure a third successive Olympic participation.
Nima had beaten Zokhid Kenjaev of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan’s Alan Kurmangaliyev to win the group in the Uzbek capital before knockout victories over the host’s Shokhrukh Iskandarov and Kirill Gerassimenko from Kazakhstan sent him into the final showdown.
The triumph was the latest episode in a remarkable eight months for the Iranian, who ended the country’s 65-year drought in the Asian Games last October by grabbing the men’s team bronze – alongside Noshad and Amirhossein Hodaei – before teaming up with his brother for a third-place finish in the doubles event in Hangzhou.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian girl Shahsavari came from behind twice to beat Kazakhstan’s Sarvinoz Mirkadirova 4-3 (4-11, 13-11, 9-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-13, 13-11) in a thrilling women’s singles final in Tashkent.
A clean sweep of three wins had seen Shahsavari top the group before she defeated fellow-Iranian Mahshid Ashtari 4-3 for a place in the final.
Noshad on course
Despite Sunday’s defeat, the older of the Alamian brothers remains in contention for an Olympic berth through the ITTF Men’s Singles World Ranking.
The left-handed Iranian moved up by 17 spots – the second highest in the top 60 – to stand 51st in the latest world ranking, thanks to a decent run in the Saudi Smash in Riyadh earlier in May, where Noshad rallied past world No. 4 Liang Jingkun from China in five games, before his campaign came to an end against Chinese teenager Lin Shidong in the round of 16.