Iranian bodybuilders dominate Asian Championships
The Iranian bodybuilding team cruised to the men’s title at the IFBB Asian Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, thanks to a remarkable 25 medals – including 15 golds – across different age and height categories.
Abolfazl Behzadi, Mobin Karimi, Seyyed Vahid Hosseini, Yasser Bekhrad, Amin Roshanaei, and Reza Beiranvand walked away with the ultimate prize of their respective weight classes in the bodybuilding contests, while Farshad Ebadi and Mohsen Kohanjameh grabbed a couple of golds in the classic bodybuilding events.
Abolfazl Hajibaqer and Hossein Farhang (physique), Hamid Gomeyzi (classic physique), Abolfazl Sedqi (master bodybuilding 40-44 years), Akbar Biklari (muscular physique open), Omid Zakeri (fitness open), and Mostafa Ezzati (fitness challenge) were also among the Iranian gold winners in the four-day event.
There were further gloires for veteran bodybuilder Kohanjameh and Ezzati, as the former settled for two silver medals in the classic bodybuilding 40-49 years open and classic physique over 175cm contests, with the latter adding a fitness challenge silver to his personal tally.
Mehran Raisi (men’s bodybuilding +90kg) and Ali Safari (classic bodybuilding up to 171cm) also finished their campaigns with a silver medal.
Sedqi, meanwhile, was handed a second medal when he finished third to Beiranvand and Raisi in the bodybuilding +90kg class – joining Seyyed Mohammad-Hassan Bohlouli (classic physique up to 175cm), Salar Honarmand (physique up to 176cm), and Ali Shafiei (fit-model open) in leaving the Mongolian capital with a bronze.
The Iranian 22-man squad tallied 291 points for the top spot in the men’s team table, followed by China and Japan, which finished on 258 and 221 points respectively.
Iran also finished atop the male seniors’ table with 263 points, with China (196pts) and Japan (135pts) completing the top three.