Golshadnejad ruled out as Iran women gear up for Asian Karate Championships
Atousa Golshadnejad will be Iran’s major absentee when the country’s women’s team gets its campaign underway at the Asian Karate Championships in Bali, Indonesia, on Friday.
Golshadnejad enjoyed a remarkable international season last year, winning the second Asian title of her career before claiming gold at the Islamic Solidarity Games and making history as the first Iranian female karateka to capture a kumite world title.
However, Golshadnejad, along with Fatemeh Sa’adati – last year’s Asian silver medalist – suffered injuries during the Iranian national team trials and will miss the continental showpiece in Bali.
In the duo’s absence, Iran’s roster will be headlined by two-time world bronze medalist Sara Bahmanyar, with Ma’soumeh Mohsenian, Mehrnegar Ahmadi, Mobina Heidari, Liela Borjali, Fatemeh-Zahra Saeid-Abadi and Hannaneh Salehi also competing across the women’s kumite weight classes.
Iran head coach Pegah Zanganeh shrugged off the absence of Golshadnejad and Sa’adati, insisting her team remains determined to deliver strong results in Bali.
"I do not consider this a crisis because the rest of the team has the potential to produce strong performances," Zanganeh told Mehr News Agency before departing for Indonesia on Sunday.
"The karatekas have faced many of their opponents in various tournaments and have a good understanding of them," she said. "That is why we are sending an experienced team. I recently presented a detailed analysis of these matchups and past results during a meeting attended by the sports minister. Even against some of the most decorated opponents, we have recorded more victories than defeats.
"We had a short period to prepare the team, but we have worked to bring the athletes to an acceptable level of fitness and hope they can achieve positive results," she added. "Our main objective at this event is to secure qualification for the Team World Cup later this year."
Zanganeh also said the Asian Championships would play a key role in determining Iran’s squad for September’s Asian Games.
"Together with the federation, we have narrowed the pool of candidates for the Asian Games to the athletes included on our initial list," she said. "We still intend to evaluate a few competitors, and on the final day of the Asian Championships we will announce our representatives for the three available places."
Meanwhile, four-time Asian bronze medalist Fatemeh Sadeqi will be joined by Sepideh Amini and Zeinab Hosseini in the women’s kata event, while Ali Zand, Mahdi Shahin, Matin Farimand, Mobin Jabbari and Sahand Eslami will compete in the men’s kata draw.
In the men’s kumite competition, Morteza Ne’mati will look to improve on his silver-medal performance in Tashkent last year. Reigning world silver medalist Saleh Abazari, Behnam Dehqanzadeh, Hadi Kiani, Seyyed Amir Hassani, Ali-Asghar Asiabari, Mahmoud Ne’mati, former world champion Bahman Asgari, Mahdi A’ashouri, Mahdi Shahgol and Mahdi Ganjzadeh complete the Iranian kumite squad, which will be led by former Olympic champion Sajjad Ganjzadeh.