Riyadh 2025 Islamic Solidarity Games:
Iran bags eight more medals, makes men’s volleyball final
Iranian athletes collected eight more medals on the third day of action at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh, while the country’s national volleyball team booked its place in the men’s final.
Iliya Salehipour headlined Iran’s medal hunt on Monday, winning gold in the snatch, bronze in the clean and jerk, and silver in the total in the men’s 88kg weightlifting event.
The Iranian lifted 162kg on his third and final successful attempt to edge Uzbekistan’s Sarvar Zafarjonov by one kilogram for the ultimate prize in the snatch category.
Zafarjonov, however, made amends by claiming the clean and jerk gold with a lift of 202kg – one kilogram ahead of Oman’s Amur Salim Al-Khanjari – while Salehipour settled for bronze with 197kg.
Salehipour registered a total of 359kg to conclude his campaign with the silver, with Zafarjonov grabbing his second gold with 363kg.
“Thank God I managed to win a medal after several competitions. This is my first gold, the result of years of hard work and intense training,” Salehipour said.
“I competed at the World Championships in Norway 20 days ago and had to take part in the Games without any rest to maintain my fitness level. I came here aiming for a clean sweep of golds, but I’m still pleased with what I achieved.”
There was further weightlifting success for the Iranians on Monday, as Reihaneh Karimi claimed double bronze medals in the women’s 69kg event.
The Iranian lifter got off to a slow start, finishing sixth in the snatch, but after missing her first two attempts, she managed to lift 126kg on her third to place third in the clean and jerk, before a total of 221kg earned her a second bronze medal.
Table tennis double
Elsewhere, Iran’s male and female teams added two table tennis medals to the country’s haul in Riyadh.
The trio of Amirhossein Hodaei, Benyamin Faraji, and Mohammad Mousavi-Taher settled for silver in the men’s event after a final defeat to Kazakhstan.
Mousavi-Taher and Faraji surrendered a one-game lead to lose 2-1 (14-16, 11-5, 16-14) to Alan Kurmangaliyev and Aidos Kenzhigulov in the doubles contest, before Hodaei fell to Kirill Gerassimenko in straight games.
Faraji was also beaten by Kurmangaliyev in three games as Kazakhstan sealed an 8-1 victory.
Earlier in the day, a semifinal defeat to Türkiye saw Iran claim bronze in the women’s competition.
Neda Shahsavari and Setayesh Illoukhani lost 3-0 in the doubles match, but Shima Safaei kept Iran’s hopes alive with a 2-1 win over Sibel Altinkaya.
However, Shahsavari’s straight-game loss to Ece Harac ended Iran’s run in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Mahdi Gholami secured Iran’s third swimming medal in the Games, claiming the bronze in the men’s 200m butterfly event.
The 15-year-old Iranian finished the race in 2:01.35 minutes to stand behind Turkish swimmer Polat Uzer Turnali (1:58.14) and Azerbaijan’s Ramil Valizada (2:01.16).
This was Gholami’s second medal in Riyadh, having been part of the Iranian quartet – alongside Mohammad Qassemi, Ali Rashidpour, and Matin Sohran – that won bronze in the 4×200m freestyle relay the previous day.
Hands on volleyball gold
Iran continued its emphatic run in men’s volleyball, defeating Chad in straight sets (25-15, 25-19, 25-19) to secure a spot in Thursday’s final with one game to spare in the round-robin phase.
The fourth consecutive win tightened Iran’s grip on top of the six-team table ahead of Wednesday’s dead-rubber against Saudi Arabia.
The top two teams in the standings will face off again in the final.
Sitting second to Iran, Türkiye is the favorite to meet Iran again in the showdown.
Despite a 3-1 victory over Türkiye earlier in Riyadh, Iran head coach Payman Akbari insisted that “it will be 50-50” should the two meet again in the final.
In the women’s competition, Iran celebrated its victory with a straight-set demolishing (25-9, 25-10, 25-8) of Afghanistan on Tuesday.
The result kept Iranian girls, who had suffered back-to-back defeats against Azerbaijan and Türkiye, in contention for a place in Thursday’s bronze-medal matchup.