Iran’s heavy weight taekwondoka Sajjad Mardani in the +80kg category won a bronze medal in the Wuxi World Taekwondo Grand Slam Champions Series, in China, Dec.’s 30, 2017-January 27.
In his first match Mardani defeated South Korea’s Seung Hwan Lee 12-11 in a breath-taking competition. The Korean has the silver medal from the 2017 Universiad.
Mardani next faced Radik Isayev from Azerbaijan. The Azeri has gold medals from the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2015 World Championships but lost the game to Mardani 11-9, Varzesh3 reported.
Roman Kuzenetsov from Russia was the only barrier between Mardani and the final game. The Russian and Mardani finished the match 0-0 to let the judges decide the winner based on their performance. Luck was not on Mardani’s side and he lost the match.
In the qualification match Mardani hammered his Croatian rival Vedran Golec 9-4 to grab the bronze medal and the $5,000 prize money. His share will be $3,500 and the rest will go to his coach Alireza Nasr-Azadani.
Add new comment
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints