Iranian wushu athletes win 2 gold, 3 silver at Asian Games

In the women’s 52kg, Elaheh Mansourian won a silver medal after losing to Chinese fighter Yueyao Li 2-0 in the final. She had defeated Nepalese athlete Elina Chaudhary Round of 16, Pakistan’s Samreen Altaf in quarterfinals and Indonesian Tharisa Dea Florentina in semifinals, Tehran Times reported.

Shoja Panahi seized a silver medal in the men’s 60kg. He defeated Yemen’s Yousef Ahmed Saad Isskandar in Round of 16, Kyrgyzstan’s Askat Omurzakov in quarterfinals and Gideon Fred Padua in semifinals but lost to Xuetao Wang of China 2-0 in the final.

Afshin Salimi won a gold medal in the men’s 65kg. He first defeated Vietnamese Chuong Truong van in quarterfinal and then beat South Korea’s Jeon Seong Jin in semifinals.  Salimi finally beat Indonesian practitioner Samuel Marbun in the final match.

Mohsen Mohammadseifi took a silver medal in the men’s 70kg. The three-time Asian Games gold medal winner lost to China’s Feng He 2-0 in the final match. Mohammadseifi had defeated South Korea’s Gicheol Song in Round of 16, Turkmenistan’s Mekan Paltayev in quarterfinals and Huan Yi Zhang of Chinese Taipei in semifinals.

Yousef Sabri won Iran’s wushu’s second gold medal in the 2022 Asian Games. He first defeated Shokhzod Tashpolatov of Kazakhstan in Round of 16 and then beat Uzbekistan’s Azizbek Isroilov and Nasratullah Habibi of Afghanistan in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. Sabri beat Macao’s Feilong Cai to win gold in the men’s 75kg.

Zahra Kiani in the women’s Qiangshu and Shahrbanoo Mansourian in the women’s 60kh had previously won a silver and a bronze medal in the Games, respectively.

With more than 12,000 competitors from 45 nations and territories, the 2022 Asian Games has more participants than the Olympics.

Iran has sent 289 male and female athletes to the Games in 34 sports events.

MNA