Asian Taekwondo Championships:
Hajimousaei grabs gold as Iran closes in on men’s title
Mahdi Hajimousaei secured Iran’s fourth gold medal at the Asian Taekwondo Championships on Saturday as Iran closed in on defending its men’s kyorugi team title in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
A world silver medalist last October, Hajimousaei defeated former Olympic bronze medalist and 2019 world champion Jang Jun of South Korea in straight rounds to add the -63kg gold to his -58kg glory from the 2024 edition.
Reigning Olympic champion Arian Salimi had opened Iran’s gold account in the Mongolian capital with a dramatic victory in Thursday’s +87kg showdown, before world champion Abolfazl Zandi (-58kg) and Amir-Sina Bakhtiari (-74kg) claimed the top prize in their respective divisions on Friday.
Yasin Valizadeh, meanwhile, marked his senior debut at the Asian Championships with an impressive silver medal in the -54kg division.
Mohammad-Hossein Yazdani and Ali Ahmadi were the other two Iranians in action in the men’s event on Saturday, finishing empty-handed in the -87kg class.
Meanwhile, Iran endured another dreadful day in the women’s competition on Saturday after all three Iranian girls crashed out in the early stages of their respective events.
Olympic bronze medalist and world U21 champion Mobina Nematzadeh entered the -53kg contest with high hopes of ending Iran’s women’s drought in Ulaanbaatar, but her campaign finished after a third-round setback against her South Korean opponent. Fereshteh Fat’hi and Saghar Moradi were both knocked out by China’s Jiani Xing in the -67kg category.
Masoumeh Ranjbar (-46kg), Fatemeh Ahmadi (+73kg), Baran Nemati (-73kg), and Mahla Momenzadeh (-49kg) had already missed out on a podium finish earlier in the women’s contests.
Iran will still hope to have something to cheer about in the women’s event when Olympic silver medalist and former world champion Nahid Kiani (-57kg) — who has recently recovered from knee surgery — and Yalda Valinejad (-62kg), a silver medalist at last year’s Islamic Solidarity Games, get their campaigns underway at the M Bank Arena today.
The final day’s action will also see Amir-Abbas Rahanama and Mohammad-Hassan Palangafkan vie for glory in the -68kg contest, with Amirreza Sadeqian part of the -80kg draw.