The Iranian cyclists stood after teams from Thailand, Japan and Taiwan in the mountain biking relay on the first day of the Asian Mountain Bike Cycling Championships in Malacca.
Farzad Khodayari, Faranak Partowazar, Shiva Tavakkoli, and Ali Zohrabzadeh made up Iran’s team.
Cyclists from 17 countries - Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Japan, Iran, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Lebanon, China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Taiwan and Thailand - are chasing for Olympic tickets at the Asian Mountain Bike Cycling Championships in Malacca from Aug 12-16.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has given the green light for the meet to be a designated Olympic qualifying event for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next year so that the winner and runner-up will qualify for the Games.
This year’s event is the 21st edition of these competitions and will come to an end on Sunday.