Asian Youth Games:
‘Envisioned for years’: Iranian girls win historic handball gold
Iranian girls made history on Tuesday by securing the handball gold at the 3rd Asian Youth Games in Bahrain.
A commanding 43-26 win against India saw Khadijeh Qane’s team clinch the top spot in the seven-team round-robin tournament with one game to spare, sealing a maiden continental gold for Iranian women’s handball across all age groups.
The Iranian young guns opened a 23-13 lead by halftime and never looked back, celebrating a fifth successive victory at Umm Al-Hassam Hall to sit atop the table with 10 points ahead of today’s dead rubber against Hong Kong.
Aseman Badvi spearheaded the victory with a game-high 12 goals. Hasti Arianfar posted a perfect shot conversion for her seven goals, while Reihaneh Hosseini contributed with six.
Sana Fotouhi, Sarina Rostami, Parisan Ahmadi Khosravi, Zahra Afshari, Fatemeh Olfatnia, Hasti Sheikhalizadeh, Fatemeh Behzadi Moqaddam, Melika Safikhani, Tina Khoshnejad, Arezou Talei, Negar Babasafari, Dina Derakhshanmehr, and Diana Rezaei were the other members of the Iranian history-making squad in the Games.
“Thank God for this magnificent achievement. Congratulations to all the Iranian people and the sports community, especially the entire handball family,” Qane’ said after the game.
“We had little time to prepare for the tournament, but the players’ enthusiasm made this happen. I am incredibly happy for the Iranian handball girls. This is a success I have envisioned for years. I was always confident that these girls would one day stand on the podium as the champions of Asia,” added the head coach.
The Iranian team began its campaign with an impressive 30-25 win against China and went on to beat Uzbekistan 27-24. The team then came out victorious against another Asian powerhouse in Kazakhstan (27-23) before the emphatic 32-16 victory over Thailand.
Wrestling glory
Elsewhere in the Games on Tuesday, it was business as usual for Iranian wrestling as the country collected four medals, including double golds, on the first day of the boys’ freestyle event.
Parsa Tahmasbi defeated Adilet Tolobekovich Mukanbetov 6-2 in the final to capture the gold medal in the 45kg weight class, while Amirmohammad Zarrinkam walked away with the ultimate prize in the 71kg event, thanks to an 11-0 superiority win against Satoya Kobayashi of Japan.
Arman Elahi suffered a final loss on criteria (4-4) to Uzbekistan’s Ulugbek Rashidov and settled for the 51kg silver, with Seyyed Taha Hashemi bagging a consolation bronze in the 60kg class – courtesy of a 9-3 win against Yokub Ibronov of Tajikistan.
There were more medals for Iran in the girls’ competitions on Tuesday as weightlifter Hasti Seddiqi took the clean & jerk bronze in the 63kg category, while Fatemeh Rastegar clinched a first-ever women’s boxing medal for the country despite a last-four setback in the +80kg division.
Meanwhile, the Iran demolished Uzbekistan 14-2 to cruise to the boys’ futsal final.
Sadra Choopani and Mohammad-Javad Norouzi each scored a hat-trick with Hosseinreza Yousefi finding the net twice.
Amirhossein Mostasharnejad, Abolfazl Zamani, Saeid Fakhrani, Mohammadhossein Gharibi, Mohammad Karami, and Amirhossein Dahipour were also on the scoresheet for the Iranian under-17 side.
Standing between Iran and the gold medal in today’s final showpiece is Afghanistan, which defeated Thailand 9-1 in the other semifinal.