Iran Daily Wednesday, June 21, 2023 Sports 5
Athletics
Iran beats Netherlands
for historic world wheelchair basketball bronze
Sports Desk contest as Mohammadre-
za Dastyar’s men went into
Iran grabbed a historic halftime with a 42-31 lead.
bronze medal at the IWBF Iran, which had been
Wheelchair Basketball beaten by Australia in the
World Championships in third-place match in the
Dubai, the UAE, thanks to previous edition in 2018,
a 72-54 victory over the increased the gap to 16
Netherlands on Tuesday. points in the third quarter,
Morteza Abedi contribut- before a 14-12 triumph in
ed 19 points, 18 rebounds, the final period sealed the
and three assists to a maid- historic triumph for the
en medal for Iran at the country.
competition, while Omid Dastyar’s team had a slow
Hadi-Azhar also finished start to its campaign in
on 19 points, while regis- Dubai and suffered back-
tering eight rebounds and to-back defeats against
11 assists. Team GB (90-59) and USA
Hakim Mansouri and (82-74) – the two men’s fi-
Mohammad-Hassan Say- nalists on Tuesday – before
yari chipped in 11 points an 83-41 win against Iraq
apiece for the Asian side, saw the Iranians progress
which fell to a 64-44 defeat to the knockout phase as
against the Great Britain in the third team in Group D.
the semifinals. Iran beat France 89-79 in
Dutchman Mendel Op Den the last-16 round and then
Orth scored a game-high came out on top against
24 points, followed by Germany with a 70-68
teammate Robin Poggen- scoreline for a place in the
wisch, who had 21 points, semifinals.
as well as eight rebounds The 14th edition of the
and nine assists. quadrennial event was
Iran got off to a flying start initially scheduled for No-
to the game in Dubai WTC vember last year but was
Court 1 – winning the first moved to the new date to
period 25-15 – and never avoid clashing with the
IWBF looked back through the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Injured Qassempour Iran settles for
a doubt for Wrestling Asian team saber silver
World Championships
Sports Desk Iranian singlet at the World Championships in
Belgrade in case Qassempour does not recover
Iranian freestyle wrestler Kamran Qassem- in time for the event.
pour will face a race against time to be fit for Azimi stole the headlines in May’s Takhti Cup
September’s Wrestling World Championships in Urmia, northwest Iran, by marching to the
after limping off with a groin injury during a 92kg gold – thanks to a victory over Moham-
training session on Monday. mad-Javad Ebrahimi in the final – while Firouz-
The Iranian, who has been the dominant force pour – an Asian champion and world U23 gold
of the 92kg weight class for the past two years medalist in 2022 – was part of the Iranian team
with back-to-back world golds, will also miss that won the silver in last December’s FS World
the upcoming Ranking Series event – starting Cup in the United States.
July 13 in Budapest. The two Iranians will join the six-man squad
This was the same injury that forced Qassem- for the Ranking Series tournament in the Hun-
pour out of the Kaba Uulu Kozhomkul & Raat- garian capital, as the wrestlers with the best
bek Sanatbaev Ranking Series tournament in result in each of the four weight divisions will
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, earlier in June. be handed a berth at the World Champion-
Mohsen Kaveh, the head of the Iranian nation- ships.
al teams, said an MRI scan will determine the Ahmad Mohammad-Javan and Milad Valiza-
timeline for Qassempour’s return “within the deh will represent Iran in the 57kg category in
coming days”, adding: “We’ll do all we can to Budapest, with Amir-Mohammad Yazdani – a
make sure he will be a part of the team at World world silver winner in 2021 – and Mohammad
Championships.” Bakhshi taking part in the 72kg con-
Kaveh named Mobin Azimi and Amirhossein tests.
Firouzpour as the two alternatives for the Mohammad Nokhodi and Ali
Savadkouhi will also decide
ADIB MOHMADI/[Link] who will be the Iranian 79kg
wrestler in Belgrade.
Nokhodi had to settle for IRNA
a silver in the last two edi- Sports Desk Oh Sang-uk in the South Korean
tions of the World Champion- team.
ships after successive defeats Iran bagged the silver medal of China and Japan took the joint Tuesday’s silver –
against legendary American the men’s team saber contests bronze medals. fourth in five years for
Jordan Burroughs, before Sa- at the Asian Fencing Champion- This was a fourth Asian silver in the country – came
vadkouhi claimed a first victo- ships in Wuxi, China, on Tues- five years for the Iranian saber after Ali Pakdaman
day. team, which had to share the
ry in 15 attempts for the Iranian had won the individual
wrestlers against the seven-time Having beaten Japan in the third podium with Hong Kong
semifinals earlier in the day, the saber gold in Wuxi,
world and Olympic champion at last year in Seoul.
Iranian four-man team – com- Tuesday’s result came after Pa-
while Mohammad
the FS World Cup.
prising Farzad Baher, Moham- kdaman and Rahbari had won Rahbari took the joint
Reza Atri (61kg) – a world silver win-
ner last year – reigning world cham- mad Fotouhi, Ali Pakdaman, and the individual gold and bronze bronze.
pion Rahman Amouzad (65kg), Younes Mohammad Rahbari – suffered medals in Wuxi respectively.
Emami (74kg), eight-time world and Olym- a 45-28 defeat against reigning Pakdaman edged Kim Jun-ho – a
pic medalist Hassan Yazdani (86kg), Mojtaba world and Olympic champion world bronze winner in 2018 –
Goleij (97kg), and Amirhossein Zare’ (125kg) South Korea in the final show- 15-14 in a thrilling final.
– a Tokyo Olympic bronze winner and world piece. Beaten by the South Korean in
champion in 2021, who took the bronze last Tokyo Olympic bronze medal- the last-four contest, Rahbari
year – have already secured their spots in the ist Kim Jung-hwan was joined stood alongside Low Ho Tin of
World Championships. by Gu Bon-gil, Kim Jun-ho, and Hong Kong on the third podium.
