World Taekwondo Under-21 Championships:
Iran’s Nematzadeh, Zeinali strike gold on Day 3
Mobina Nematzadeh and Radin Zeinali captured gold medals on the penultimate day of the World Taekwondo Under-21 Championships, taking Iran’s medal count to six at the inaugural showpiece in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday.
A bronze medalist at last year’s Paris Olympics, Nematzadeh bounced back from a below-par campaign at November’s Senior World Championships to defeat Türkiye’s Sila Irmak Uzuncavdar 2-1 (9-3, 7-12, 5-1) in the women’s -53kg final.
Given a bye in the first round, Nematzadeh – the 2022 world junior champion – began her campaign with a straight-round victory over Morocco’s Meryem Ennams, then defeated Germany’s Adiba Asimi by the same scoreline to reach the semifinals, where she prevailed in back-to-back rounds against Bosnia’s Ada Avdagic.
Another final featuring Iranian and Turkish contestants on Friday saw Zeinali beat Omer Furkan Korpe 2-1 in the men’s -74kg showdown.
The Iranian prodigy overcame Georgia’s Nika Gogoberidze, Kazakhstan’s Yergesh Bekassyl, and Spain’s Juan Antonio Milan – all without dropping a single round – before overpowering top seed Victor Rodrigues of the United States to book his place in the final.
Saghar Moradi and Mahdi Razmian were the other Iranians in action on Friday, though both finished empty-handed after suffering second-round exits in the women’s -67kg and men’s -54kg events, respectively.
Friday’s results came after Iran had collected two golds and two bronzes earlier in the Kenyan capital.
Amirreza Gholami capped his impressive campaign with a thrilling 3-2, 8-8, 7-6 victory over Spanish top seed Mikel Fernandez Garcia in the men’s -80kg final on Thursday, while Hasti Mohammadi settled for bronze in the women’s -57kg event following a semifinal defeat to reigning world under-18 champion Amina Dehhaoui of Morocco – the Iranian teenager’s second international bronze in less than a month after her medal-winning run at the Islamic Solidarity Games.
The opening day of the tournament saw Abolfazl Zandi – crowned world senior champion in late October – round out a brilliant five-week stretch by winning gold in the men’s -58kg category, defeating Russian neutral athlete Magomedg Magomedov 2–0 in the final.
World junior champion Amirmohammad Ashrafi claimed joint bronze alongside Tunisia’s Motaz Ifaoui in the men’s +87kg division after a 2-1 semifinal defeat to Kazakhstan’s Beibarys Kablan.