Iran National Thread

[MHSN 3,632]

Two days before the opening ceremony I want to share my expectations about each sport for Iranian athletes.

 

Swimming: no chance for medal. I will be glad if we will have one finalist in individual events. Ansari is probably our best swimmer to get some OK results.

 

Diving: no chance for medal. top 8 finish will be considered as good. top 5 or 6 is also possible in syncro events.

 

Water polo: everybody expects them to play China in bronze medal match. impossible to beat Japan and Kazakhstan and they are supposed to beat the rest. even though I'm not 100% sure about that. last year Iran lost only on penalties to China in Asian Championships. they trained hard hoping to beat China this time. I expect them to finish 4th but there is something like 20% chance for a bronze.

 

Archery: We are sending complete team in compound (men and women) and men's recurve plus only one female archer in recurve. obviously no chance in recurce but we have a good chance for medal in compound. we won the men's individual gold medal last time but they dropped the event. we will have 3 medal chances in men's team, women's team and mixed team. nothing is guaranteed in Archery but I expect one medal at least. gold is a bit unlikely.

 

Athletics: Ehsan Haddadi will win the Discus throw gold for sure. our federation expects 3 medals in 3 different colors. but there is no guaranteed medal beside Haddadi. we have chance in men's shot put (with both Samari and Mehrdelan). our second guy in Discus throw (Shiri) . also I give small chance to sprinter Taftian and also Asian Champion Keihani in 3000m steeplechase . but in general I agree with our federation's prediction. 3 medals from different colors.

 

Badminton: we will send two players. both will lose in 1st or 2nd rounds. we didn't improve even a bit here.

 

Basketball: everybody expects Iran to win the gold but personally I don't think gold medal is a sure thing at all. not even close. winning a medal is almost a sure thing but gold will be really tough with Philippines and China bringing NBA players. but we are also bringing our complete team and anything less than gold won't be a good result.

 

Basketball 3x3: only in this sport for a weird reason the competition is for U23 players. our federation didn't know that until two months ago so they "made" these teams only recently which makes our chance even less. even though we were not the favorite for 3x3 even before that ! we will send both men and women teams but I don't expect them to medal. but since this is U23 everything is possible.

 

Boxing: last time we won 3 medals in boxing in 81kg, 91kg and +91kg and guess what ? the host dropped all 3 weights from the program ! we were always weak in lighter weights. we will send 3 boxers and our federation considers even a bronze medal as success. I think the same too. those 3 guys had some decent results in international tournaments recently but still the level is very high in lighter weights in Asia. I expect no medal but that's not impossible with a good draw. the best chance is probably Ahmadi-Safa.

 

Canoeing Sprint: it seems we have chance for medal in all events we are participating. but since organizers dropped both Men's C1 200m and Men's K1 1000m (which is still an Olympic event), none of our athletes/teams are favorite for the gold medal. our best chance for gold is probably in K2 1000m. we also have good chance for medal in women's events with Hakimi and Kazemi. I expect something like 4 medals but no gold.

 

Canoeing Slalom: this is not Canoe Slalom that we see at the Olympics. this is a different style we had that in Incheon 2014 too and Iran ended up winning a bronze medal. I really don't know what to expect. I guess no medal here but winning a bronze or something won't be a huge surprise.

 

Cycling Track: last time in Incheon we had a very very surprising gold medal in Keirin but I don't think miracle happens twice. we will have chance for medal in Madison, Team Sprint or maybe Omnium. but I don't have high expectations here. a bronze in madison is the best I can hope for.

 

Cycling Road: they changed the rule this time, letting countries to enter 4 cyclists for the road race event instead of just 2 ! which gives more chances to countries like Iran with better team work but still I see Kazakhstan is sending a very strong team. I don't think we have a chance for gold but winning 1 or 2 bronze is possible in Road Race or ITT or maybe both.

 

Cycling Mountain Bike: We have a good chance for medal for the very first time here. both in men's and women's cross country events and also in men's downhill. a medal in women's cross country will be our first ever medal in women's cycling. gold is hard to get but I expect two medals here.

 

Equestrian: this is one of the sports that I know a little about. I'm also curious about our results here. we will have a full jumping team plus one rider in Eventing and one in Dressage. of course I don't expect a medal but I also don't think their results will be disastrous. there will be a British-Iranian woman competing in Dressage "Soheila Sohi" she is the only athlete in our whole delegation who raised outside of Iran !

 

Fencing: We will participate in men's Sabre, women's Sabre and Men's Epee. I think a silver or bronze in men's team Sabre is a sure thing. but beside that we also have a good chance for medal in men's individual sabre and women's team sabre. I expect 2 or 3 medals here. of course no gold because of the very strong South Korean team. AG has a very unique rule for team events in fencing. they don't use the World Ranking for seeding. that will be based on individual results .which means individual results matter even more to get easier opponents before the medal round.

 

Football: After watching Iran-Saudi Arabia match I highly doubt this team can go far in this competition. even passing the first round won't be easy for them but I expect a R16 or QF exit for this team.

 

Gymnastic Artistic: our federation believes there is a slim chance to win a medal in pommel horse. Keikha won a bronze last year in Asian Championships in this event but we know the level is higher at the Asian Games. he needs a perfect performance to stand a chance.

 

Handball: we are missing some of our best players. I don't consider Iran as a big medal favorite but I also believe we have great potential in this sport. last time we finished 4th with a much weaker team. so nothing is impossible. there are 6 teams fighting for 3 medals here. I expect a 5th place finish but medal is not that hard to get.

 

Judo: last time in Incheon was the only time in history for Iran not winning a single medal in AG ,  we won a world medal by Molaei since then and he is our best chance for medal here as well he will be #1 seed. the next best chance is Mahjoub in super heavyweight but in Asia sometimes Japan or Korea enter unseeded high quality judokas. so even being the top seed won't necessarily prevent Mollaei from facing Japan before the QF. I expect 1 or 2 medals here. gold is unlikely but not impossible.

 

Kabaddi: a year ago they were claiming they want to challenge India for the gold medal (as they did last time and lost only narrowly in last minute) but then both men and women teams lost to Pakistan and South Korea in Asian Championships semifinal at home ! so I prefer to lower the expectations. I still think they can beat the rest to lose to India in the final. I think winning two medals is almost a sure thing. bronze or silver.

Edited August 16, 2018 by MHSN

[dcro 10,210]

25 minutes ago, MHSN said:

Equestrian: this is one of the sports that I know a little about. I'm also curious about our results here. we will have a full jumping team plus one rider in Eventing and one in Dressage. of course I don't expect a medal but I also don't think their results will be disastrous. there will be a British-Iranian woman competing in Dressage "Soheila Sohi" she is the only athlete in our whole delegation who raised outside of Iran !

 

I think the surprise result for Iran may come in eventing. Don't know much about Torabi, but he wasn't half bad in France a month ago! Although don't be surprised if he drops more than one rail in the show jumping stage...

 

As for Litta Soheila Sohi, she has been posting some mediocre scores at best in Europe. Asian small tour format without piaffe should suit her though, since she usually loses a lot of points there. However she most likely won't be finishing in the top half anyway.

[MHSN 3,632]

Jujitsu: there are 3 styles in Jujitsu. we are very good in fighting system but they picked only Brazilian jujitsu "Ne waza" for the competition . which is not our style. and interestingly they dropped the super heavyweight event (the only event Iran won the gold in AIMAG 2017) I'm no expert in this sport but I think winning 2 medals is a fair prediction. unlike other martial arts sports each country can enter two athletes per weight.

 

Kurash: We are sending a full men's team. same as Jujitsu we can send 2 athletes per weight as we are sending. guys like Ghanbari, Aliakbari or Pahlevani had won the Asian title before, so I think expecting at least one gold medal is fair. Kurash will have direct elimination format with no seeding. which means luck plays a big factor but I think we will win few medals here. 4-5 maybe more.

 

Pencak Silat: hard to believe this sport even exists here but apparently this is a bit similar to an Iranian sport "Toa"  (Iranian style of Kung Fu) so they could bring some athletes. this sport belongs to Southeast Asian countries but depends on the draw I expect 1-2 medals. after all we are good in any kind of fighting sport ! lol

 

Sambo: this is a fighting sport so the chance exists for a medal but I don't expect much here with Kazakhstan and the rest of Central Asian countries having two athletes per weight.

 

Wushu: no chance in Taolu but all of our Sanda athletes have a very good chance for medal. actually only China can beat our athletes. the organizers dropped our favorite 75kg event, we will have 4 male and 2 female athletes in Sanda. all of them have to go through China to win the gold which is an uphill task in Wushu I'm confident about Mohammadseifi to win his 3rd AG gold medal. he is such a monster and beat China before. I don't think our other athletes can beat China which means they have to pray for not facing China before the medal round. I expect one gold and few more medals.

 

Paragliding: absolutely no idea where we stand in this sport. we are sending a very small team of 3. which ruins our chance for a medal in team event and I don't think there is a chance for individual medals. in general I expect no medal and I'm curious about their results.

 

Rowing: with 15 rowing events each country could enter 11 boats. and China usually wins all gold medals. in past few editions China didn't enter for single sculls events but apparently they changed that this time (probably to help the host nation winning more golds) which is a very bad news for Iran since our best medal chances are in single sculls events. I was sure about Nazanin Malaei's gold medal in LWT Single Sculls event but now she has to beat China. we had some great results last year in Asian Championships winning 4 gold medals. but for having a better prediction I have to know China's roster first. we also have Mohsen Shadi back from retirement to win his 3rd AG gold medal. I'm sure we will win few medals here but beating China will be tough. I still try to be optimistic and expect a gold here.

 

Sailing: The sport rarely even exists here. we will have two sailors. no medal and I expect very bad results.

 

Sepaktakraw: AG rule of each country can enter only in two events (out of 4 men's events) gives us good chance for medal. with joint bronze medals we only have to make it to the semifinal. in Quad event we are grouped with Pakistan, Nepal, Vietnam and Singapore. we only have to beat either VIE or SGP. both matches are winnable. also in team regu event we are grouped with Indonesia and India. I think India match will be 50/50. so I think it's fair to expect one medal here.

 

Shooting: there are so many events and also so many medal opportunities here but of course our best chance is in women's rifle events. we won our first ever gold medal in shooting in Incheon but I'm not that optimistic this time. but I expect something like 2 medals. and of course you never know in shooting. we also didn't expect a gold in Incheon.

 

Sport Climbing: world record holder Reza Alipour is our best chance for gold medal in men's speed but he is falling from the wall here and there and Indonesia is also getting good results so even that gold medal is not guaranteed at all. beside Alipour we also good chance for medal in men's and women's speed relay. we also send athletes in combined events but I don't think we have a medal chance.

 

Squash: we are participating in this sport after 20 years. Iran won a bronze medal in Asian Championship in men's team but that was only because other countries didn't send some of their A players. and this is funny we are sending only 2 male players (and 3 female) so no men's team event for Iran ! even though we got a bit better in this sport but still no chance for medal.

 

Table tennis: our federation believes with a good draw and a bit of miracle we can win a bronze in team event ! but seriously that's highly unlikely. Alamian brothers sometheimes get good results against East Asian players but winning a medal is not realistic.

 

Taekwondo: there are 10 Kyorugi events and 4 Poomsae events. we have medal chance in all 14 of them but even one gold is not guaranteed. in Poomsae gold is impossible but we can win medal in all 4 events depend on the draw. but in women's Kyorugi we lost our only gold medal chance after Kimia Alizadeh's injury. our other girls are good but winning both China and Korea to win the gold is unlikely. but in the men's side we are sending a very experienced team. but South Korea will be very strong this time. I think our best chance is at 80kg because Korea is a bit weaker here. I expect something like 8 medals here . and probably only one gold. even though I hope for more.

 

Tennis: this is still a mystery how come our federation managed to convince the NOC sending 6 tennis players ! they all will be tourist losing in 1st or 2nd round. we are still struggling to stay in 2nd division of Asian Davis Cup. it says about the level of tennis here. hard to believe one day we had Grand Slam level players !

 

Triathlon: we will make our debut in this sport, no chance for medal. no chance for a good result. we are very weak in this sport.

 

Volleyball: while China and Japan are sending their B teams .we are sending our A team . we are strong favorite for the gold medal. anything less than gold will be disastrous

 

Beach Volleyball: we get good results in Beach volleyball once in a while. we won Asian Championship twice before. but their result is not consistent at all. they even can lose to some low level Thai teams ! I don't' expect a medal but that's not completely impossible

 

Weightlifting: We are almost sure about two gold medals. 94kg and +105kg. we probably can finish 1-2 in both events. we will have 3 Olympic Champions in these two weights plus World medalist Alihosseini. that should be 3 gold medals but the idiot Rostami moved up to 94kg and now we have two Olympic champions in the same weight ! beside that we also have a chance for gold at 105kg. Hashemi is the current World Champion. but he has to beat the Olympic CHampion Nurudinov. there is slim chance for 85kg gold with Makvandi if China doesn't participate. in general I expect 2 (or maybe 3) gold medals and all of our weightlifters will be favorite for medal. so let's say 6 medals.

 

Wrestling: We don't have a stellar team this time. but you never can understimate Iranian wrestlers in Asia. all of our 12 wrestlers have chance for medal. even for the gold but I'm only confident about few of them. Hassan Yazdani is a sure gold medal. Hossein Nouri at 87kg Greco also has a very good chance. beside these guys none of our wrestlers have more than 50% gold medal chance. but I expect 8-9 medals including 4 gold medals.

Edited August 16, 2018 by MHSN

[MHSN 3,632]

15 minutes ago, dcro said:

 

I think the surprise result for Iran may come in eventing. Don't know much about Torabi, but he wasn't half bad in France a month ago! Although don't be surprised if he drops more than one rail in the show jumping stage...

 

As for Litta Soheila Sohi, she has been posting some mediocre scores at best in Europe. Asian small tour format without piaffe should suit her though, since she usually loses a lot of points there. However she most likely won't be finishing in the top half anyway.

 

Thanks that gave me a better idea what to expect. Equestrian is not in my radar that much. actually when I read the names few days ago I thought we will have two female riders but then after watching their pics at the AG official website I found out "Ariana" is a name for boys as well .

 

Equestrian is usually only "Jumping" here , I'm surprised that we are participating in other events. I never heard about any Eventing or Dressage competition here. (even though Sohi is living in UK, she is just representing Iran)

 

I believe that lucky bronze medal in Ashgabat helped them to convince the NOC giving them 6 quotas. which is too much in my opinion comparing to other sports. in other sports the federations have to talk with NOC days and months to get one more spot. I hope they can be competitive

[MHSN 3,632]

This week was perfect for Iran 's Judo winning two medals in the World Championship. I made a list of all Iran's medals in a World Judo Championships. unfortunately not a very long list !

 

2001: Gold Medal - Arash Miresmaeili

2001: Bronze Medal - Mahmoud Miran

2003: Gold Medal - Arash Miresmaeili

2005: Bronze Medal - Arash Miresmaeili

2007: Bronze Medal - Arash Miresmaeili

2017: Bronze Medal - Saeid Mollaei

2018: Bronze Medal - Mohammad Mohammadi-Barimanloo

2018: Gold Medal - Saeid Mollaei

 

beside those medals we had some 5th place finishes in the World Championship. Miran (1997), Fallah (2005), Sarlak (2009), Roudaki (2011)

 

and regarding to the Olympics, we never won a medal but we had been in bronze medal match several times losing all of them ! Miresmaeili (2000), Haji-Akhondzadeh (2004), Miran (2004), Maloumat (2008) and Roudaki (2008)

 

We had our "golden period" in judo from 2000 to 2008 even though we didn't win an Olympic medal in that period, we had been in bronze medal match 5 times ! and our best chance Arash Miresmaeili in 2004 (when he was the defending World Champion) got Israel draw in the first round. but since 2008 IJF changed the rules and made touching the leg forbidden which had huge huge affect on Iran's judo. beside that we had some bad management for several years and also a plane crash killed the entire Iran junior team it took 10 years for Iran to win another World medal which happened last year with Mollaei.

[MHSN 3,632]

Iran's squad for 2018 World Wrestling Championships in Hungary

 

Freestyle

57: Reza Atri

61: Mohammad Bagher Yakhkeshi

65: Amir Hossein Maghsoudi

70: Younes Emami

74: Mostafa Hosseinkhani

79: Ezzatollah Akbari

86: Hassan Yazdani

92: Alireza Karimi

97: Mojtaba Goleij

125: Parviz Hadi

4 wrestlers are making their debut, (Yakhkeshi, Maghsoudi, Emami and Goleij) Atri and Hadi once represented Iran at the World Championship and won nothing but the remaining 4 wrestlers are former or current World medalist. but only Yazdani (the current World and Olympic Champion) had won a gold medal before. beside Yazdani who has a great chance for gold again. I think Karimi has a very good chance for medal at least. I expect 2 or 3 medals unfortunately. last year Iran won just one !

 

Greco-Roman

55: Moslem Naderi-Khadem

60: Mehrdad Mardani

63: Mohsen Hajipour

67: Mohammad Reza Geraei

72: Mohammad Ali Geraei

77: Pejman Poshtam

82: Saeid Abdevali

87: Hossein Nouri

97: Mehdi Aliyari

130: Shahab Ghourehjili

3 debutantes, (Naderi, Reza Geraei and Poshtam) and only 3 former or current world medalists, Abdevali, Nouri and Ali Geraei , they all won bronze last year ! (Abdevali had some other medals as well including a gold) I think these 3 guys will be our chance for medal. specially Abdevali and Nouri. doesn't look like a great team, we have to wait 2-3 more years to see some of our great junior wrestlers in the senior team.

[MHSN 3,632]

I found this on Olympic Channel

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/original-series/detail/land-of-legends-asia-pacific/land-of-legends-asia-pacific-season-season-1/episodes/why-iran-s-pride-and-prowess-in-wrestling-is-unsurpassed/

 

while the whole clip is interesting but I'm mostly amazed by the short clip at the start of the video. whoever made this video did a FANTASTIC job. if I had to describe Iranian wrestling in few memorable frames almost all of them are here in this video. unfortunately I can't recognize some of those old (black and white) frames except Takhti and Habibi but there are some memorable since 1990.

 

from Alireza Soleimani's gold medal podium in Martigny 1989 (Iran's first gold medal after the Islamic revolution and also first and so far the only gold medal for Iran in Super heavyweight) specially with US and USSR flags under IR's flag (extremists in Iran used that image for their propaganda for a long while) , Majid Torkan's childish celebration after his gold medal in Tokyo 1990, Askari Mohammadian carrying the American legend John Smith on his shoulder after losing to him at the 1992 Olympics final, Alireza Heidari throwing Melvyn Douglas in Takhti Cup in Tehran (first time any American sport team visiting Iran after the revolution), Amir Reza Khadem's famous gut-wrench on Kenny Monday in 1991 Varna, Rasoul Khadem's golden moment in 1996 Olympics with his famous ankle pickup on Makharbek Khadartsev in the final (Iran's first Olympic gold after 28 years), Alireza Dabir and his famous singlet at the 2000 Olympics and of course the legendary Sourian and his gut-wrench on Bayramov in London 2012.

 

they only used "positive" frames. only victories , I only would add Norouzi's famous throw on his coach after the Olympic gold. otherwise the video is just perfect. brought back some memories for me.

[nitinsanker 202]

4 hours ago, MHSN said:

I found this on Olympic Channel

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/original-series/detail/land-of-legends-asia-pacific/land-of-legends-asia-pacific-season-season-1/episodes/why-iran-s-pride-and-prowess-in-wrestling-is-unsurpassed/

 

while the whole clip is interesting but I'm mostly amazed by the short clip at the start of the video. whoever made this video did a FANTASTIC job. if I had to describe Iranian wrestling in few memorable frames almost all of them are here in this video. unfortunately I can't recognize some of those old (black and white) frames except Takhti and Habibi but there are some memorable since 1990.

 

from Alireza Soleimani's gold medal podium in Martigny 1989 (Iran's first gold medal after the Islamic revolution and also first and so far the only gold medal for Iran in Super heavyweight) specially with US and USSR flags under IR's flag (extremists in Iran used that image for their propaganda for a long while) , Majid Torkan's childish celebration after his gold medal in Tokyo 1990, Askari Mohammadian carrying the American legend John Smith on his shoulder after losing to him at the 1992 Olympics final, Alireza Heidari throwing Melvyn Douglas in Takhti Cup in Tehran (first time any American sport team visiting Iran after the revolution), Amir Reza Khadem's famous gut-wrench on Kenny Monday in 1991 Varna, Rasoul Khadem's golden moment in 1996 Olympics with his famous ankle pickup on Makharbek Khadartsev in the final (Iran's first Olympic gold after 28 years), Alireza Dabir and his famous singlet at the 2000 Olympics and of course the legendary Sourian and his gut-wrench on Bayramov in London 2012.

 

they only used "positive" frames. only victories , I only would add Norouzi's famous throw on his coach after the Olympic gold. otherwise the video is just perfect. brought back some memories for me.

Liked the movie 

Love the whole Iranian story in wrestling ........ India has had the problem of being good at many sports but not excellent at any one ...... Iran shows the way that if you are really excellent  at one sport ( and heavyweight weightlifting ) you can be a great olympic nation 

[MHSN 3,632]

4 hours ago, nitinsanker said:

Liked the movie 

Love the whole Iranian story in wrestling ........ India has had the problem of being good at many sports but not excellent at any one ...... Iran shows the way that if you are really excellent  at one sport ( and heavyweight weightlifting ) you can be a great olympic nation 

 

 

well I would prefer to be good in more than just 2-3 sports. because when you rely on only 2-3 sports and when they get weak sometimes (which happens) that will affect the whole delegation . like 2008 Olympics which was a nighmare with only 2 medals. wrestling was in worst situation ever and our weightlifting got hit by a doping scandal. only Taekwondo won a gold medal that time

Edited October 13, 2018 by MHSN

[MHSN 3,632]

time for a little update

 

because of new rules in Iran. people who are "retired" can't work anymore in government-related jobs. and what's a government-related job ?! any kind of organization that gets financial help from the government. by this definition all sports federation in Iran will be applied to this rule. they excuted this few days and this made a chaos in the whole system. so many had to leave their jobs which means right now so many sports federations in Iran are without a president or general secretary etc. but the problem is some international federations considering it "government intervention" and they are investigating this. some "suspensions" are quite possible now. in Iran they only let the "football federation president" to keep his job mostly because they know FIFA is no joke and the guy in head of the federation found a way to stay in his position (at least for now) on a technicality. still some of his stuffs had to resign. which means AFC/FIFA still will investigate this. some people here expect us to receive "suspension letter" from FIFA in next few days right before the AFC Asian Cup.

 

I think right now more than 10 federations are without president here. Handball, Volleyball. Judo. Rowing/Canoeing, Karate, Triathlon plus few more I can't remember now beside them I can add wrestling and Hockey to the list for different reasons. some of them just resigned earlier to not make a mess but some of them (specially volleyball guy) didn't let it go without a fight. he left it in the very last day not before informing FIVB. he was TERRIBLE in his job in 11 months of his job. we will see if FIVB takes action but even FIVB probably knows he was such a jerk and maybe they let it go. while it was a positive change in Volleyball, I can't say the same about other sports, specially Judo and Karate.