Mohitizadeh looking to build on record-breaking form at Asian Games
Iran’s Fatemeh Mohitizadeh will look to carry her record-breaking form into the upcoming Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games after her latest triumph at the Women’s National Athletics Championships in Shiraz.
Mohitizadeh improved the Iranian national record in the heptathlon for the third time in less than a year, scoring 5,813 points on the final day of the championships.
A silver medalist at the 2024 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, the Iranian had previously raised the national record to 5,616 points at the third stage of the Tehran Grand Prix on June 16. She had also set a new mark with 5,562 points at the 2025 Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh last November, where she won the gold medal.
Her latest performance underlined the 23-year-old’s rapid rise and established her as one of the emerging stars of Iranian athletics.
Mohitizadeh became the third Iranian female athlete to break a national record at this year’s national championships, following Faezah Ashourpour in the 100-meter hurdles and Zahra Najafi in the javelin throw.
All three Iranian athletes will be part of the country’s athletics roster at the Asian Games, which will kick off on September 22 at Nagoya’s Paloma Mizuho Stadium.
With the multi-sport event fast approaching, Mohitizadeh’s remarkable progress has put her among Iran’s serious medal hopefuls in Japan.
Mohitizadeh also enjoyed a decent international outing recently in a preparatory competition in Belarus, where she improved her 100-meter hurdles mark and cleared an impressive 1.70 meters in the high jump. However, Parisa Behzadi, vice president of the Iranian Athletics Federation, insisted that Mohitizadeh would still need to improve her performance to fancy her chances of a podium finish at the Asian Games.
Upon being elected president of the Iranian Athletics Federation two years ago, former Olympic silver medalist Ehsan Haddadi vowed a 10-medal haul for the country at the Asian Games.
The double-figure target may ultimately prove optimistic, particularly given the strength of Asian athletics and the fact that Iran managed a combined five medals, including three golds, in the previous two editions of the Asian Games.
However, the recent progress of Mohitizadeh, coupled with Mohammadreza Tayyebi’s established continental credentials, gives Iran a foundation on which to build.
Iran’s men’s squad has perhaps its clearest medal candidate in Tayyebi in the shot put. His official 20.75-meter national record places him third on the Asian list, behind India’s Tajinderpal Singh Toor (21.03m) and China’s Xing Jialiang (20.95m).
Tayyebi won gold at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships with a throw of 20.32 meters, beating Xing to the top spot and strengthening the case that he can contend for another major continental medal.