One Silver and One Bronze for Iran in Taekwondo World Championships

The 23rd World Taekwondo Championships is currently being held in South Korea with nearly a thousand taekwondo practitioners from 183 countries participating. Iran has so far succeeded in winning one silver and one bronze medal. In the 54 kg weight category, Armin Hadi-Pour stood on the podium as the runner-up. He first defeated a representative from India and then overcame an Ethiopian opponent to reach the final 32. In his third match, Hadi-Pour faced an Indonesian and won decisively 24 to 3 to advance to the round of 16. His next opponent was Murad Lachraoui from Belgium, a European gold medalist, who also could not resist against the Iranian representative. Murad's older brother, Najim Lachraoui, was involved in last year's bombing and suicide attack at Brussels Airport. Hadi-Pour concluded this match with a score of 17 to 9, securing his bronze medal by reaching the semifinals. The Iranian fighter faced a representative from Thailand in the semifinals, who holds the 2015 world bronze medal. It was a close and intense match that ended 25 to 23 in favor of Armin. The Iranian representative then competed for the gold medal against Tae Hoon Kim from South Korea but could not perform well in the second and third rounds, losing 10 to 6 and finishing in second place. Thus, the curse of winning a gold medal in the first weight category in the history of the World Championships remains for the Iranian national taekwondo team. In the women's competitions, Nahid Kiani was defeated in her fourth match by Vania Stankovic from Serbia, thus exiting the tournament. The 19-year-old Iranian representative would have secured her bronze medal had she won this match. Kiani, who recently became the champion of the Islamic Solidarity Games, had previously defeated opponents from Morocco, France, and Guatemala. Yasmina Aziz from France, who defeated Kiani, reached the semifinals in the Rio Olympics. Masoud Hajizavareh, competing in the 74 kg weight category, was the second Iranian representative in the men's competitions who went on to win a bronze medal without any losses. Masoud, who had a favorable draw, defeated representatives from Mauritius and Pakistan before overcoming his Serbian opponent as well. In his fourth match, he faced Eissa Saif from Egypt and while he was leading, he was injured by an illegal kick from the Egyptian taekwondo player and was taken to the hospital. According to the decision of the organizing committee, Hajizavareh was declared the winner of this match, securing his bronze medal. He was scheduled to compete against Maxim Kharamtsov from Russia on Monday for a place in the final, but the Iranian Taekwondo Federation announced that he would not compete due to injury. The Iranian national team in the men's section is led by Mehdi Bibak (head coach) along with Alireza Nasr Azadani and Hadi Afshar. On the third day of this global event, Melika Mirhashemi will compete in the women's events and Abolfazl Yaghoubi in the men's competitions. The head coach of the Iranian women's national team is Mehro Kamrani, with Fatemeh Safarpour and Reyhaneh Fooladi as her assistants in this competition. Kimia Alizadeh, the only Olympic medalist in the history of Iranian women's sports, is participating in these competitions and is the most hopeful member of the Iranian women's team.