Asian Karate Championships:
Triple triumphs lift Iran to runner-up finish in Bali
Iran secured three kumite gold medals on the final day of the Asian Karate Championships in Bali, Indonesia, to finish runner-up in the medals table – the country’s best result at the competition in seven years.
A haul of nine medals across the men’s and women’s events saw Iran finish behind Japan, which collected five golds, three silvers, and five bronze medals. Kazakhstan placed third with two golds, two silvers, and three bronzes.
Iranian brothers Morteza and Mahmoud Nemati claimed gold in their respective divisions, both at the expense of defending champions in the final.
The pinnacle of Iran’s final-day success, however, came in the women’s team kumite event, where head coach Pegah Zangeneh’s quartet, having defeated Kazakhstan in the semifinals, beat Japan 2-0 in the final.
Hannaneh Salehi and Fatemeh-Zahra Saeidabadi emerged victorious in their bouts as the Iranian women’s team – also featuring Sara Bahmanyar and Mobina Heidari – won the continental title for the first time since 2019.
In the men’s individual kumite competition, Morteza Nemati defeated Nurkanat Azhikanov 3-2 in the -75kg final to make amends for last year’s title-match defeat to the Kazakhstani karateka, who was chasing a third Asian title in four years.
Minutes later, Mahmoud Nemati added a second men’s kumite gold to Iran’s tally with a 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia’s Sanad Sufyani in the +84kg final.
Morteza Nemati, however, missed out on a second gold medal later on Sunday, as he was part of the Iranian squad that suffered a 3-0 defeat to Jordan in the men’s team final.
Saleh Abazari, Esmaeil Motamedi, and Mahdi Ashouri all fell short in their bouts as Iran had to settle for silver behind Jordan for the second consecutive year.
A place in the final had already secured both Iranian men’s and women’s teams qualification for the Team World Cup in Hangzhou, China, in November.
Sunday’s medals came after Iran had collected five bronze medals earlier in the tournament.
Former world bronze medalist Aliasghar Asiabari recovered from a semifinal defeat to Jordan’s Mohammad Al-Jafari – who went on to retain his title – to beat India’s Chetan Bhatt 16-7 and claim bronze in the men’s -84kg category.
Mehrnegar Ahmadi also secured a kumite bronze medal courtesy of a 6-1 victory over Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Man in the women’s -61kg division, while the Iranian trio of Fatemeh Sadeqi, Sepideh Amini, and Zeinab Hosseini defeated Hong Kong 5-2 in the bronze-medal playoff of the women’s team kata event.
It was Sadeqi’s second bronze medal in Bali after she had defeated China’s Tao Yiwei 6-1 to secure third place in the individual kata competition on the opening day – the Iranian’s fifth bronze medal in the history of the championships.
Ali Zand had opened Iran’s account with a bronze medal in the men’s individual kata on Thursday, defeating China’s Zheng Qianqu 7-0 in the third-place match.