Asian Junior Taekwondo Championships:
Iran wins 14 medals, finishes runner-up to South Korea
Iran had to settle for runner-up finishes to South Korea in both girls’ and boys’ competitions at the Asian Junior Taekwondo Championships despite collecting a remarkable eight medals – including four golds – on the final day of the event in Kuching, Malaysia.
Zahra Fallah headlined the Iranian girls’ medal hunt on Saturday by grabbing the ultimate prize in the -44kg category, thanks to a straight-round victory over Huang Yi-ting of Chinese Taipei in the final showpiece.
Fatemeh Eskandarnia, meanwhile, did not concede a single round on her way to the -68kg final, but was undone by Kazakhstan’s Aruzh Naimanbayeva (2-1) and took the silver.
Saina Alipour was the other Iranian medalist in the women’s competitions on Saturday, winning a consolation bronze in the -49kg class after a last-four setback against Kim Hyang-gi of South Korea.
Elina Alipour (+68kg) and Saina Khan-Ali (-59kg) had bagged a couple of women’s gold medals for the country on the opening day of the competitions, while Negar Mozaffari (-42kg) and Rozhan Goudarzi (-52kg) finished their campaigns with a silver and a bronze, respectively.
Iranian boys, meanwhile, enjoyed a much more prolific run on Saturday, having bagged only a couple of silver medals through Mohammad-Mahdi Sa’adati (+78kg) and Iliya Shahbazi (-63kg) on the preceding day.
Amirreza Rahmanizadeh outclassed Lebanese Kevin Sawan in successive rounds to notch up the -78kg gold, while Amir-Mohammad Nasirahmadi made a clean sweep of five straight-round victories to win the -55kg title, beating Thailand’s Pongsakon Phalak in the final.
Mahdi Razmian added a third men’s gold to Iran’s haul, courtesy of a 2-0 win against China’s Cao Xiaohuan in the -51kg showdown.
Mobin Alipour had to settle for the men’s -59kg silver after a final defeat against Omadbek Otabekov, while a last-four loss to South Korean Lee Jun Hyuk saw Seyyed Ali Hosseini finish his -68kg campaign with a bronze medal.