World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series:
Salimi wins bronze but red flag raised for Iran ahead of Asian Games
Iranian taekwondo was handed a wake-up call ahead of the upcoming Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games after the country endured a dire run at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix event in Muju, South Korea.
Represented by seven competitors in the three-day event at the iconic Muju Taekwondowon, Iran managed just one bronze medal, through Olympic champion Arian Salimi in the men’s +80kg class on Monday.
An Asian champion in May, Salimi picked up where he had left off in his gold-winning run at the WT President’s Cup in Lahore last month, beating former world silver medalist Ivan Sapina of Croatia (2-1) and Mexico’s Carlos Sansores (2-0) to set up an all-Iranian clash against Mohammad-Hossein Yazdani in the quarterfinals.
Salimi emerged victorious in successive rounds against his compatriot but saw his campaign end in the semifinals after a 2-1 defeat to Russia’s Vladislav
Larin.
Salimi bounced back from a 4-0 loss to the Russian – an Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo 2020 – in the first round to win 7-2 in the second, but ultimately fell short 16-8 in a thrilling decider to settle for a joint third-place finish alongside Vasileios Tholiotis of
Greece.
Larin was beaten in back-to-back rounds by Egypt’s Seif Eissa – a -87kg world champion in Wuxi last year – in the final.
Earlier in the competition, Iran’s Abolfazl Zandi and Mahdi Razmian suffered second-round exits in the men’s -58kg category on the opening day.
Reigning world and Asian champion Zandi opened his campaign with a 2-0 win 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 to Croatia’s Josip Teskera by the same
scoreline.
The second day of action was also one to forget for Mehran Barkhordari and Nahid Kiani – silver medalists at the Paris 2024 Olympics – as well as reigning Asian champion Amirsina Bakhtiari.
Desperate to bounce back from a shock first-round defeat at the WT Women’s Open Championships last week in Taiyuan, China, Kiani opened with a 2-0 victory over Poland’s Niko Lisowska in the women’s -57kg division but was beaten in consecutive rounds by fifth-seeded Amina Dehhaoui – the Iranian’s second defeat to the young Moroccan following the Chuncheon Korea Open setback in July.
Barkhordari bowed out early in the men’s -80kg class, losing 2-1 to American Isaiah Young in his first bout.
Bakhtiari 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.