The final debut was competed at Crystal Hall on Sunday evening in Baku where the host’s men’s team was eager to win the title similar to their female counterpart.
However, the Persians put an end to Azerbaijan's dreams of a volleyball double by showing up as formidable opponents. Early in the first set, Azeri rivals took a 6-4 lead while Iran made up for the lag superbly by racing into a 17-11 lead. The Iranian side finally managed to take the opening set 25-16 thanks to its tremendous solidarity in defense.
The second set saw a neck on neck competition until the two sides tied up at 22-22. Both sides kept earning set points until Iran won 29-27 moving one more step towards the gold medal.
Young volleyball players of Iran, who had reached the final stage by subduing Turkey, had an easy task retaining the upper hand in the third set which concluded 20-18 in favor of Iran.
Iran owes its comprehensive 3-0 victory to captain Rasoul Aghchehli who earned 22 points and smashed 19 spikes as well as Aliasghar Mojarad who won four blocks.
The 25-16, 29-27, 25-18 victory over Azeri opponents brought home gold of men’s volleyball at Islamic Solidarity Games while the hosts received silver.
The bronze medal went to Algerians who surprisingly manages to down Turkey 3-1 in a five-setter battle for third place.
At the time of writing, Iranian sportsmen and women had a total of 90 medals including 33 golds, 26 silvers and 31 bronzes for the country to retain its third position in the medals table on penultimate day of the prestigious multination and multisport evert.
The 4th Islamic Solidarity Games started in Baku, Azerbaijan, on May 12 under the motto ‘Solidarity is Our Strength’. The tournament will wrap up on May 22, 2017.
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