Manila in Philippines hosted the event where 239 athletes of 38 Asian countries competed for titles. Iran’s young squad clinched 3 gold medals and 2 silvers to be crowned the champion. Iran’s last representative was Alireza Aliari who in minus 68kg category was defeated by his Korean rival Liyup Ji Kim in 3 rounds 3-8 to secure the silver medal of the category.
In road to final, Aliari had routed his Philippines rival Benjamin Zambrano; in the second round, he defeated Singaporean Zulpha Dale 8-1, and in the third, this was Yu Jin Huang of Taipei who found only defeat in the hands of Aliari with a humiliating 15-8.
Iran’s first place came with 5 medals and a total of 56 points. South Korea, a traditional rival in Asia and even world for Iran stood in the second place with 3 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medals; Uzbeks came third with 1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medals.
In men’s category, Iran received golds by Armin Hadipour, Mir Hashem Hosseini, and Saeid Rajabi. Alireza Aliari and Abolfazl Yaghoubi lost to rivals to find silvers. Pouria Erfanian stood in the fourth place, but yet received valuable points which contributed towards Iran’s first place in the ranking.
In women’s section, Iran’s team consisting of Nahid Kiani, Mahsa Jeddi, Hannaneh Hemmati, Hanieh Akhlaghi, Shokraneh Izadi, and Melika Mirhosseini received 3 bronzes to stand in 8th place with disappointing 14 points.
Iran’s 3 former championships in Asia had been in 2008, 2010 and 214. Iran’s Seyed Nemat Khalifeh and Payam Khanlarzadeh coached the national squad, where Khalifeh was awarded Asian Best Coach, with Armin Hadipour as Technical Athlete of the event.
SH/3604119