As part of the preparation stage for the 2016 Rio Olympics, Iran’s Olympian taekwondo athletes attended the 14th Spanish Open tournament in Spain on Sunday following a joint training session with the Spanish National Team in Madrid.
Sajjad Mardani in +87kg weight category overcame Spanish (5-2), Moroccan (8-1) and Serbian (knock-out) rivals before reaching the finals where he downed the American athlete 7-0 in order to claim the title.
Competing in -63kg group, Farzan Ashourzadeh was victorious in all combats on road to the final encounter where he conceded a 3-4 defeat against the Egyptian rival standing on the silver podium.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Mahdi Khodabakhshi (-87kg) reached semifinals with two wins over Spanish (11-0) and Moroccan taekwondokas.
However, in order to prevent aggravation of the trauma in his left foot, Khodabakhshi pulled out of the tournament at the discretion of the technical staff and conceded to the bronze medal.
The Iranian taekwondo squad will return home in order to pursue preparatory stages in Tehran under the supervision of the technical staff.
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