The Iranian Taekwondo team has wrapped up its work in Guangzhou Asian Games 2010, with 3 gold, 2 silver, and 4 bronze medals. The medals earned the country the first place in men's section and second totally. Iran outnumbered the Korean delegation in overall number of medals, but with less than a gold, which put the Korean team above Iran, although it earned much less medals than Iran.

The Iranian men Taekwondo athletes bagged 3 gold medals from the tournament, in an astonishing performance, which they say could have earned the country other medals if world famous Hossein Tajik of Iran was not prevented by referees to win his Tajik opponent. "I would never forgive them" said Hossein Tajik with teary eyes after three of his 3-point kicks were ruled out by the referees. "His opponent did nothing other than running around the field, escaping kicks" said one of the team officials. "They took Tajik's gold away from us" said Reza Mehmandoust, Iran's head coach.

The Iranian team had won a single gold in Doha Asian games, where gold medals were swept by South Koreans. This lone medal back then was grabbed by Yosef Karami, who got another gold in Guangzhou Asian Games. Karami overcame his Korean opponent 4-3, in a fight that brought considerable burden of criticism for the Korean team. Korean media criticized the coach and the team, with a Korean newspaper saying "Korea was humiliated in Taekwondo."

Alireza Nasar Azadani grabbed Iran's first gold an hour before Yusef Karami on Wednesday, after he beat his Uzbek rival 10-2 in a state-of-the-art performance. His gold was also the first gold medal of the whole Iranian delegation in the Asian games.

"The performance of the Iranian team was beyond expectations" said Sayed Mohammad Pouladgar, the president of the Iranian Taekwondo Federation. "For men, we expected two gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze, and for women, we expected a silver, and two bronzes" Pouladgar told reporters. Yet "I am sad on how Naderian and Abdollahi played. They were also among our hopes for wearing medals." He continued.

Mohammad Bagheri Motammed, who won Iran's last of three gold medals on Friday told reporters "I learned a lot from Hossein Tajik's games, if you don’t win with power, then the rule of judges can play a more significant role, I didn’t want this happen."

Iran has become a world power in Taekwondo, especially in men's categories, with Iranian girls also catching up. All Iranian girls but one wore medals in Guangzhou Asian Games. Just Soheila Sayahi did not stand a ranking after she lost to her Kazakhstan opponent on Saturday morning. Parisa Farshchian and Raheleh Asemani wore silver medals, and Sara Khoshjamal, Samaneh Sheshpari, and Susan Hajipour brought home the bronze medals. Silver winner Raheleh Asemani was replaced with Paria Pourne'mat in a last minute decision by the Iranian Taekwondo federation, after Pourne'mat was injured in the camp a couple of day before the team set off for China.

By: Alireza Madadi

تاريخ  ارسال:شنبه 29 آبان 1389 - 10:22

کد:1500

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