Asian Club Taekwondo Championships:
Iranians win nine medals on Day 1
The first day of the Asian Club Taekwondo Championships saw Iranians collect triple gold medals in Wuxi, China, on Tuesday.
Representing the Shahrdari Varamin and Reza clubs, Iranian contestants also collected double silvers and four bronze medals in the 13th edition of the competitions.
Mohammad-Hossein Yazdani and Amirsina Bakhtiari won a couple of men’s golds in their respective weight classes, with Sogand Shiri defeating Thai opponent Patcharakan Poolkerd to walk away with the ultimate prize in the women’s -46kg event.
Yazdani beat second seed Shukhrat Salaev of Uzbekistan 2-1 in the -87kg showdown, while the other final showpiece featuring Iranian and Uzbekistani participants saw Bakhtiari come out on top against Shakhboz Tusmatov in straight rounds in the -74kg class.
Ali Khoshravesh, meanwhile, suffered a last-four defeat against Bakhtiari to share the third podium with Kazakhstan’s Altair Omirbekov.
Elsewhere, Amirreza Sadeqian finished his campaign with a silver medal after a 2-0 loss to Jasurbek Jaysunov in the men’s -80kg final.
Saeideh Nasiri, meanwhile, fell to a 2-1 defeat against China’s Jingyue Ma in the women’s -49kg final to add a second silver to Iran’s medal haul.
The event in Wuxi was hardly a success story for Iranian Olympic medalists Nahid Kiani and Mobina Ne’matzadeh, who could only manage to win a consolation bronze in the women’s -53kg and -57kg contests, respectively.
Amirmohammad Rahmani-Rad was the other Iranian bronze medalist on Day 1, settling for a joint-third place in the men’s +87kg class.