World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series:
Iranians’ woes continue on Day 2 in Muju
Iran endured yet another disappointing day at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series event at the iconic Taekwondowon venue in Muju, South Korea, after three Iranians – including Olympic silver medalists Nahid Kiani and Mehran Barkhordari – all finished empty-handed in their respective events.
Desperate to bounce back from a shock first-round defeat at the WT Women’s Open Championships last week in Taiyuan, China, Kiani opened her women’s -57kg campaign with a 2-0 victory over Poland’s Niko Lisowska before suffering a straight-round loss to fifth-seeded Amina Dehhaoui – Kiani’s second defeat against the young Moroccan following the Chuncheon Korea Open setback in July.
Barkhordari, meanwhile, bowed out early in the men’s -80kg division, losing 2-1 to American Isaiah Young in his first bout.
Barkhordari’s compatriot Amirsina Bakhtiari – an Asian gold medalist in May – had a better run in the -80kg class, beating Spain’s Juan Antonio Canovas 2-0 and Jordanian Saleh El-Sharabaty – an Olympic silver medalist in Tokyo 2020 – 2-1, but was ultimately undone by Young in the quarterfinals.
Sunday’s setbacks came after Iran’s Abolfazl Zandi and Mahdi Razmian suffered second-round exits in the men’s -58kg category on the opening day of the competition.
Reigning world and Olympic champion Zandi opened his campaign with a straight-round victory over Saudi Arabia’s Riad Nasser Hamdi before losing 2-1 to two-time world champion Bae Jun-seo of South Korea.
Razmian, meanwhile, defeated Chinese Taipei’s Pan Kuei-en 2-1 in his first outing but fell short against Croatia’s Josip Teskera by the same scoreline.
The G6 event in Muju serves as part of the qualification pathway for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, with the gold medalists earning 60 Olympic ranking points.
Olympic champion Arian Salimi and Mohammad-Hossein Yazdani will represent Iran in the men’s contests on the final day of the competition.