33-member Iranian squad named for WT President’s Cup in Lahore
Iran will dispatch a 33-member squad to compete at the upcoming World Taekwondo President's Cup – Asia, which will kick off on August 18 in Lahore, Pakistan.
The G3-ranked event will feature 323 athletes from across the continent and offers valuable ranking points on the road to Olympic qualification, with gold medalists earning 30 points in the World Taekwondo rankings.
Iran's delegation will feature 18 male and 15 female athletes.
Paris Olympic gold medalist Arian Salimi and reigning world and Asian champion Abolfazl Zandi spearhead a star-studded men's roster.
Mahdi Razmian, Yasin Valizadeh, Amir Mohammad Nasirahmadi, Ali Asghar Moradian, Mahdi Hajmousaei, Amirabbas Rahnama, Danial Bozorgi, Matin Rezaei, Amirsina Bakhtiari, Radin Zeinali, Reza Kalhor, Amirreza Sadeghian, Mehran Barkhordari, Amirreza Gholami, Mohammad Hossein Yazdani, and Ali Najafi have also been called up by head coach Payam Khanlarkhani.
Among the notable selections are Bozorgi and Kalhor, who return to international competition after serving three-year suspensions. Their inclusion is expected to strengthen the national team, particularly in the men's under-68kg division.
In the women's competition, Olympic silver medalist and Asian champion Nahid Kiani will be Iran's leading contender, while reigning two-time world junior champion Hana Zarrinkamar will look to build on her senior breakthrough at the Chuncheon Korea Open in July, where she claimed gold in the +73kg category.
Yalda Valinejad, Hasti Mohammadi, and Fatemeh Ahmadi, who were part of the Iranian team that won bronze at the World Cup Team Championships a fortnight ago, have also been named in the squad. Saina Karimi, Masoumeh Ranjbar, Mahla Momenzadeh, Maryam Malekoutikhah, Anahita Ramezani, Nastaran Valizadeh, Fereshteh Fathi, Saghar Moradi, Elham Haghighi, and Sara Soufi complete the lineup.
Meanwhile, Iran will once again have no representative in the women's under-53kg division, marking the second consecutive international event after the Korea Open in which the weight class has been left vacant.
The registration deadline for the President's Cup has not yet passed, meaning changes to Iran's squad remain possible before the competition begins.