Asian Indoor Athletics Championships:
Dastarbandan takes 800m bronze as Iran finishes with four medals
Iranian middle-distance runner Toktam Dastarbandan claimed a bronze medal in the women’s 800m final as Iran concluded its Asian Indoor Athletics Championships campaign with four medals in Tianjin, China, on Sunday.
Dastarbandan clocked 2:09.576 in the final and narrowly missed silver, finishing just one millisecond behind second-placed Sabokhat Samijonova of Uzbekistan. China’s Wu Hongjiao won gold in 2:08.56.
Dastarbandan’s bronze proved to be Iran’s only medal on the final day of competition. Sobhan Ahmadi finished fourth in the men’s 800m final, while Amirfarzam Safari and Hossein Nouri placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the men’s 1500m.
Nouri, however, left China with a medal after securing bronze in the men’s 3000m on Saturday.
Hassan Ajami, meanwhile, narrowly missed the podium in the men’s shot put, finishing fourth with a best throw of 19.39 meters.
The Iranian, who was only handed a place in the final after a Chinese sprinter was forced out through injury, registered a career-best 47.59 seconds, finishing behind Qatar’s Bassem Hemeida (47.27 seconds) and China’s Chiyu Zheng (47.34 seconds).