More Silver and Bronze for Iran

Iran’s team at the Asian Games of Jakarta finished the 8th day with three more silver and two bronze medals.

Karatekas Taravat Khaksar and Rozita Alipour from the women’s team and Amir Mahdizadeh from men’s team won silver on Sunday.

Hammering Latifa Haidare of Afghanistan 9-0 in her first match, Khaksrar finished with a 1-1 draw against Cokorda Istri Agung Sanistyarani from the host nation, Indonesia. Thanks to fewer fouls, Khaksar was named winner and went up to the semis where she beat Chinese Jiamei Ding 5-1 and grabbed the final ticket.

Khaksar had her final game with two times world championship gold winner and title holder of 2014 Incheon Asian Games, Wen Tezuyun of Taiwan. In the battle for gold the Iranian lost 4-0 and settled for silver.

Mahdizadeh lost the final game 9-7 in the men’s -60kg class to a rival from the host country.

Starting his campaign, Mahdizadeh overpowered Jayson Ramil Macaalay from the Philippines 6-0. Like Khaksar, he finished with draw against his Vietnamese contender in the second match, but the jury named him as the winner. He then edged Uzbek Sadriddin Saymatov 7-6 to reach the finals.

The last silver medal of karate went to Rozita Alipour in women’s -61kg category. She drew 0-0 in the final game against Chinese Xiaoyan Yin but it was the Chinese who won gold (for having fewer fouls) and left Rozita to pick up the silver.

 Bronze Winners

In the pencak silat field, Tahmineh Karbalaei lost the semifinal game to Thi Vam Nhi Nguyen of Vietnam 5-0 and won bronze.

Pencak silat, an umbrella term for a class of related Indonesian martial arts, is a full-body fighting form incorporating strikes, grappling and throwing in addition to weaponry. Every part of the body is used and subject to attack.

Weightlifter Ali Hashemi doubled the number of bronze medals on the eighth day by winning in the men’s 105kg category. He managed to lift the maximum of 184kg in his third snatch attempt but in clean-and-jerk, he lifted 219kg in the first attempt and failed to bear the 224kg barbell and finished the campaign with a total of 403kg.

Iraqi Salwan Jasim Abbood Alaifuri grabbed the silver with the total of 405kg, only two kilos more than Hashemi. Uzbek Ruslan Nurudinov grabbed gold for a jaw-dropping 421kg record.

Weightlifting team of the nation won one gold medal in the 94kg class on Saturday by Sohrab Moradi who broke the longest standing the record in the history of weightlifting sport after lifting a 189kg weight in snatch.

Iran is fourth in the medals table with 14 gold, 14 silver and 11 bronze medals after China, Japan and South Korea.