Member of Iran’s national taekwondo team, who had already secured a place for Iran at Rio Olympics, achieved a precious 2-nil victory against M'Bar N'DIAYE of France in the +80kg weight category to scoop up the gold medal of the two-day tournament.
Sajjad Mardani had previously reached the finals of the 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series 2 in Turkey where he failed to defeat South Korea’s Jo Cholho and pocketed the silver medal.
Consequently, the Iranian competitor was determined to snatch the gold medal in the final bout of the senior’s male over 80-kilogram weight category of WTF Grand Prix Final and managed to down the French taekwondoka in two rounds.
The Iranian phenom Mardani had to go past Radik ISAEV of Azerbaijan and Jasur BAYKUZIYEV of Uzbekistan in order to reach the finals.
Behnam Asbaghi, the other Iranian representative in the -68kg weight category failed to subdue his South Korean rival to miss the ticket to 2016 Olympic Games.
Attracting 32 highest-ranked men athletes, the 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final was held on December 5-6 in the Mexico where Iran bagged one gold medal by Sajjad Mardani, one silver by Farzan Ashourzadeh and one bronze by Masoud Hajizavareh.
Garnd Prix Final marked Iran’s last chance to get Rio Olympic quotas and Ashourzadeh, Khodabakhsh and Mardani managed to get Olympic tickets in -58kg, -80kg and +80kg weight categories, respectively.
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