Iran win five golds, three bronzes on opening day of Pakistan President’s Cup
Tehran - BORNA - Abolfazl Zandi, Nastaran Valizadeh, Radin Zeinali, Hana Zarinkamar and Arian Salimi claimed gold medals, while Amirsina Bakhtiari, Yalda Valinejad and Fatemeh Ahmadi took bronze.
In the men’s -58kg category, Zandi began with a 2-0 victory over Pakistan’s Haider Zaman before defeating a Kazakh opponent by the same score.
He then overcame fellow Iranian Amirmehdi Nasirahmadi and faced South Korea’s Park Tae-joon in the semifinals, winning 2-0 to advance to the final.
Zandi faced South Korea’s An Hyang-sik in the gold-medal bout, winning the opening round 11-6 and the second 12-3 to secure the title in dominant fashion.
In the women’s -62kg division, Valizadeh advanced through the preliminary rounds before defeating her South Korean opponent in the semifinals.
She faced Uzbekistan’s Diyorakhon Azizova in the final. The opening round ended scoreless, with Valizadeh declared the winner of the round, before the Iranian dominated the second round 12-0 to claim gold.
Yalda Valinejad, Iran’s other representative in the category, won a bronze medal.
Radin Zeinali also produced a strong performance in the men’s -74kg category, defeating Pakistan’s Rahim Khan Mohammad and South Korea’s Kang Eun-seo 2-0 in the earlier rounds.
Zeinali then beat Thailand’s From Patjo 2-0 in the semifinals before facing an Uzbek opponent in the final. He won the first round 1-0 and also took the second to secure the gold medal.
Amirsina Bakhtiari, Iran’s other representative in the category, finished with bronze.
In the women’s +73kg division, Hana Zarinkamar defeated a Thai opponent in the preliminary round before overcoming fellow Iranian Fatemeh Ahmadi in the semifinals.
Zarinkamar faced Uzbekistan’s Saidova in the final, winning the first round 9-6 and the second 4-2 to secure Iran’s fourth gold medal of the competition. Ahmadi took bronze in the category.
Arian Salimi also won gold in the men’s +87kg category after defeating Pakistan’s Mohammad Farrokhi 2-0, overcoming fellow Iranian Ali Najafi and then beating an Uzbek opponent 2-0 to reach the final.
Salimi faced South Korea’s Park Chan-hoi in the gold-medal contest, winning the opening round 12-3 and the second 10-1 to claim the title.
Other Iranian athletes competing on the opening day included Amirmohammad Nasirahmadi in the men’s -58kg category, Reza Kalhor at -74kg and Ali Najafi at +87kg.
In the women’s competition, Maryam Malekoutikhah also represented Iran in the -49kg category.
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