The Iranian Kumite squad, who had defeated all rivals on road to the finals, had to face Japanese rivals in their last encounter. Persians handed Japan a 3-2 defeat and became world champions.
Iran’s outfit comprised Mahdi Khodabakhsh, Ali Fadakar, Sajjad Ganjzadeh, Bahman Asgari and Zabihollah Pourshib who offered excellent athletic performance in a tough final-round competition against Japan.
Ryutaro Araga, Rikiya Iimura, Masaya Ishizuka, Hideyoshi Kagawa, Ken Nishimura, Hiroto Shinohara and Daisuke Watanabe were in Japanese team.
The gold medal in Team Kumite division holds great significance in World Championships and the Sunday trophy marked Iran’s second achievement in the history of the tournament as Iranian karate practitioners had previously stood on top of the podium in the 2012 edition of the event.
National Iranian team had pulled put three consecutive 3-0 victories over Switzerland, Azerbaijan Republic and the Netherlands before entering the semifinal round where they overwhelmed the European champion France 3-0.
Overall, Iran bagged three gold and three bronze medals in Austria to land third at the Karate World Championships.
Amir Mehdizadeh, Sajjad Ganjzadeh and Male Team Kumite clinched gold trophies for Iran while Aliasghar Asiabari, Zabihollha Pourshib stood on the third podium. Hamideh Abbasali, meanwhile, was the only female athlete who managed to bag a medal for Iran by finishing in the third position.
From 25 October 2016 to 30 October 2016, the Karate World Championships, attended by 2000 athletes and coaches from 135 nations, took place in Tips Arena of the Austrian city of Linz.
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