World Para Athletics Championships:
Khosravi grabs fourth gold for Iran
Yasin Khosravi won a fourth gold medal for Iran at the World Para Athletics Championships, coming out on top in the men’s shot put F57 final in Kobe, Japan.
The world record holder and defending champion took an early lead with his first attempt before his fifth throw of 15.83m – a best tally of the season – rounded off a dominant performance for the Iranian, who also captured the ultimate prize in last year’s Asian Para Games.
Three-time world champion and a bronze winner in Tokyo Paralympics, Thiago Paulino dos Santos of Brazil tallied 15.08m to settle for the silver, with Finland’s Teijo Koopikka finishing on the third podium with 14.74m.
On Saturday, Iran’s Sadeq Beit Sayyah grabbed a second successive world silver in the men’s javelin throw F41 event.
Beit Sayyah, also a silver medalist in Tokyo, registered 47.92m to finish second to China’s Sun Pengxiang, who shattered the world record with 48.94m, while Indian Navdeep took the bronze with 42.82m.
Beit Sayyah’s medal was the 14th for the Iranian squad at this year’s competitions.
Amirhossein Alipour won a first gold for the country, thanks to a sensational campaign in the shot put F11 final, which saw him break the two-decade standing record in the championships.
High-profile Iranian and reigning Paralympic champion Saeid Afrooz flexed muscles ahead of his title defense in Paris later in the summer by grabbing a javelin throw gold.
Stepping into the event as the defending champion, Afrooz was in a league of his own in the F34 final as all his attempts – topped by the fifth of 40.14m – were enough to secure the gold.
The pinnacle of the Iranian women’s campaign came in the 400m T12 final, when Hajar Safarzadeh made history by clocking an Asian record of 57.56 seconds to become the country’s first female gold medalist in 11 editions of the World Championships.