Fujairah Open International Taekwondo Championship:
Iranian girls steal the show with 11 medals
Iran collected 11 medals, including four golds, to win the women’s team title at the 12th Fujairah Open International Taekwondo Championship in the United Arab Emirates.
Hasti Valinejad came out on top against Sogand Shiri in an all-Iranian final in the -46kg contests.
Former world silver medalist Mahla Mo’menzadeh also defeated her compatriot Saeideh Nasiri in the -49kg final, while Sogol Shiri took a consolation bronze after a last-four setback against Mo’menzadeh.
Nastaran Valizadeh beat reigning Olympic champion and world No. 1 Viviana Marton of Hungary to the -62kg title, with Melika Mirhosseini beating Jordanian Rama Abu Al-Rub for the -73kg crown.
Elsewhere, Mobina Ne’matzadeh, an Olympic bronze medalist last summer, had to settle for a silver medal in the -53kg contests after a defeat against Saudi Arabia’s Dunya Abutaleb, who made up for her loss to the Iranian girl in the third-place bout at the Paris Games.
Saghar Moradi also finished her campaign with a silver medal in the -67kg event, with Tina Madanlou (-57kg) and Zahra Pour-Esmaeil (+73kg) adding a couple of bronzes to Iran’s medal haul.
Monday’s results came after the Iranian men’s squad had bagged 12 medals, including double golds, on the preceding night at the Sheikh Zayed Sport City.
Abolfazl Zandi grabbed the -58kg gold, thanks to a final victory over fellow-Iranian Alireza Hosseinpour, while the other all-Iranian showdown saw Matin Rezaei come out victorious against Mahdi Hajimousaei for the -63kg gold.
Mohammad-Hassan Palang-Afkan (-68kg), Ali Ahmadi (-87kg) and Amirmohammad Rahmani (+87kg) were also among the Iranian silver medalists, with Yassin Valizadeh (-54kg), Saman Ziyaei (-54kg), Ali-Asghar Alimoradian (-63kg), Amirsina Bakhtiari (-74kg), and Mohammad-Hossein Yazdani (-87kg) collecting five bronze medals.