MHSN

I assume people here are less interested in non-Olympic weights. but 55 the top half is more like a joke, I think Azizli is already in the final, probably only the Kazakh wrestler can make problems for him. everybody in top half has a chance for bronze. bottom half is different, I see Kabaloev and Tsurtsumia as the favorites here, but we also have Asian Champion from UZB plus good wrestlers from TUR, JPN and ARM. I also want to give some small chances to our representative. last year World Junior champion but if he wants a medal he has to do something special. 63 Maryanyan is the clear favorite from the top half, but if you check the list, all other 7 wrestlers are more or less in the same level. it will be a very interesting battle for the bronze. Maryanyan's first opponent is Delkhani from Iran ! I don't think there is a chance for him. he better start thinking about the bronze. we have 3-4 favorites in the bottom half, Ota, Bilici, Kebispayev and the Chinese guy. I have a feeling Kebispayev will find his way into the final. he will have the home crowd and UWW referees on his side. 72 again the top half is a joke, I think Mnatsakanian will steal another world medal. this guy is the new Heiki Nabi ! this is the 3rd tournament in a row with dream draw for him. there are couple of better wrestlers in that side to surprise him. once again the Kazakhstani wrestler in the easier side. I think everybody in top half except PLW and TPE will have a chance for medal. but we have all the favorites in the bottom half. specially Mantsigov and Korpasi. before the competition I would consider our youngster Kavianinejad as a medal favorite. even a gold medal favorite, but he has an uphill task ahead of him. but I think he can at least make it to the semifinal. 82 this one is a bit more balanced, still the bottom half is harder. in top half I see Kus, Gobadze and the current Euro Champion Bisultanov as the favorites. but in the bottom half, the first quarter is really tough with our Abdevali, Manukyan and the Russian guy (you also can add Pascal Eisele to the list). I think whoever comes from that quarter will win the semis as well.

when UK denied visa for Mirhashem Hosseini, his Olympic dream looked impossible at the time but he came back strongly , he won two back to back GPs + the Universiade, now he is in top 6 (by my calculation) btw his QF against another Iranian wasn't a real match, Soroush Ahmadi was too nice and didn't try anything, it was more like a light training session for both of them. I understand that was a wise decision from our coach's point of view (because Mirhashem is a gold medal prospect) but I'm sure Ahmadi feels terrible right now. nobody counts on him but at least he was still thinking he has a chance for the Olympic quota. (even though he would lose to Mirhashem anyway but still)

I'm sure nobody expected this, Argentine didn't simply win those games by luck or something, they dominated both Serbia and France !!! Scola to me he is the God of basketball.

Congrats France , wow

I don't know if it's still the same but there used to be a funny rule in AIBA, if you lose a match by KO, you can't participate for something 6 months (or 3 ? can't remember) well at least in this sport we should not be worried about the Israelis, because they suck and we do too I was watching some matches today, 91kg first round between Iran and Iraq, after the 2nd round, our coach was telling the boxer "bro you lost both rounds, you are down, you have to do something special in the 3rd round, go for KO" and our boxer did exactly the same thing as the first two rounds and guess what, they announced him as the winner this is terrible, watching boxing is like watching basketball with no scoreboard and I don't mean the normal basketball. a new version when it's up to the refs if they give 1-2 or 3 points for a shoot, you will only know the score after the match

CEV ranking after the Euro Champs which is different than FIVB ranking.

well, we have two kind of football fans here. those who attend the stadiums aren't necessarily the best people in the country. personally I never attended a football match because the atmosphere is terrible. and it's getting worse and worse, we even had death in stadium last year. and that's the excuse the regime is using , they say the football stadiums are not good place for women !! and people like me always say, OK you are right then stop those guys from entering the stadiums !! this is not women's fault there is a thing in Iranian culture that people mostly don't curse in front of women, they simple "behave" ! I assume some of those stupid football fans don't prefer women in the stadium, so they can shout whatever they want about the referee's mother or the opponent coach or whatever. football is extremely popular here, the only sport that really matters, when our NT plays a world cup match, that's the only hour in the year you can see empty streets in Tehran. but still you rarely see huge attendance for local football matches, I think most people don't attend the stadiums for the same reason as me, if you ask those football fans, I'm sure most of them think the same as me. The government already said women can attend the national team matches. (we didn't have a home match in this NT window) but I'm sure women want more than just NT matches. that's probably just the start. the reaction to this accident was huge.

Only few hours before Iran's first 2022 WCQ match in Hong Kong, we heard a very sad news https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49646879 Reactions to this news about the "blue girl" is unbelievable here. top of the news everywhere, I assume changes are inevitable now

-nejad is a suffix. not a separate part. something like -zadeh or -pour. you should not drop it. even though I heard his coach calling him just Amin Kaviani, but in media he is Kavianinejad and about Ghasemi-Monjazi. it's not like he keeps or drops the second part. not probably his own decision, he is just known this way. (don't know why really, maybe because Ghasemi is a common surname in Iran) there are some rare exceptions like this. but in 95% you can drop the second part.

well he is not eating everybody as he used to be. but he is still beating everybody and I think he just changed his style a bit. it's not like he can't beat everybody 10-0. he just doesn't see a reason for that. a 3-0 win is enough sometimes.

I'm sure they know that. there are 1 or 2 Iranians working for UWW. I understand athletes with long surnames, that's their own fault not adding a space between parts of their names but the funny thing is they are making it even worst by adding father's name. no other sport federation does that . which is not part of the name in Iran. (the Iranian naming system is like yours, but some names are consisted of 2 or 3 parts) let me make it easier for you. this is how we know them in Iran. Freestyle: 57: Reza Ahmadali ATRINAGHARCHI ==> Reza Atri 61: Behnam Eshagh EHSANPOOR ==> Behnam Ehsanpour 65: Amirmohammad Babak YAZDANICHERATI ==> Amir Mohammad Yazdani 70: Yones Aliakbar EMAMICHOGHAEI ==> Younes Emami 74: Reza Alireza AFZALIPAEMAMI ==> Reza Afzali 79: Bahman Mohammad TEYMOURI ==> Bahman Teymouri 86: Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI ==> Hassan Yazdani 92: Alireza Mohammad KARIMIMACHIANI ==> Alireza Karimi 97: Ali Khalil SHABANIBENGAR ==> Ali Shaabani 125: Yadollah Mohammadkazem MOHEBI ==> Yadollah Mohebbi Greco-Roman 55: Pouya Mohammad NASERPOUR ==> Pouya Nasserpour 60: Ali Reza Ayat Ollah NEJATI ==> Alireza Nejati 63: Meysam Karamali DALKHANI ==> Meysam Delkhani 67: Hamed Mousa TAB ==> Hamed Tab 72: Amin Yavar KAVIYANINEJAD ==> Amin Kavianinejad 77: Mohammadali Abdolhamid GERAEI ==> Mohammad Ali Geraei 82: Saeid Morad ABDVALI ==> Saeid Abdevali 87: Ramin Soltanmorad TAHERISARTANG ==> Ramin Taheri 97: Mohammadhadi Abdollah SARAVI ==> Mohammad Hadi Saravi 130: Amir Mohammadali GHASEMIMONJEZI ==> Amir Ghasemi-Monjazi there are only 4 former world medalists in this team. we had some surprising decisions by our coach, leaving Hossein Nouri and Mehdi Aliyari ( world bronze medalists in 2017 and 2018) at home. this is a very young team, 8 of them will have their first ever World Senior Champs and 4 of them were in our junior team last year !!! in freestyle we had some disappointing news in past couple of weeks, Reza Yazdani and Parviz Hadi (at least Hadi was a sure medal) had to withdraw because of injuries. we have some very good medal chances for non-Olympic weights but I think the only guaranteed Olympic quota is 86kg Hassan Yazdani who will win the gold most probably. for the rest we have to wait and see. most of them are very young and they can surprise everybody. and speaking about medals. I'm sure about two medals in freestyle, anything else will depend on the draw. our 97kg guy is also promising he might do some damages. in Greco I have absolutely no idea what to expect. Iran got some great results in World Juniors in past couple of years. this team is mostly based on those Junior teams. I think 72 and 82 are our best chances for the gold (both of them non-Olympic weights unfortunately) I think the only weight with absolutely no chance for Iran is 74kg. Afzali is probably the worst wrestler Iran sent to the World Championship in past 20 years.

once I heard (back in 2010) Kazakhs paid a Korean referee in the men's room. I don't think there will be live stream for that but yeah with Kazakhstan being the host, we should expect dirty things. last year we had unbelievably one sided draws in favor of the host nation. I won't be surprised to see that again.

how the hell Salkazanov jumped up two weight classes ? he was 70kg last year and logically he should try 74kg this year which is an Olympic weight. are u sure there is no mistake here ?

of course there is no chance for the Asian teams. or I can say non-European teams (except Canada) but it was about participating in the OQT. if it was my team I would prefer playing there (instead of not playing) that's another chance to play couple of games against world class teams.

China got two wins at the World Cup. I think China will keep its place as the best Asian team in the world ranking (didn't count AUS/IRN/NZL) I highly doubt China doesn't make it but if they don't want to participate that's another story.

I think Philippines will lose few places in FIBA world ranking after the world cup. they are only 17pts ahead of South Korea right now. I assume South Korea will be the 2nd Asian team the other 7 teams will be most probably the same as you said.

well I don't consider them "victim" I think this format is designed to help China. everything was in their favor. they just didn't use it and gifted it to Iran. it's kind of funny we qualified to the Olympics only by beating Philippines and Angola ! btw you guys probably can't imagine how huge is basketball in China (they won several medals in other sports but basketball is something different for them) before 2004 it was always very easy for them to qualify. but after losing the Asian Champs final in 2009 (and after Yao's retirement) they found out they don't dominate the Asian basketball anymore. since then they always hosted the Olympics qualifiers . 2012, 2016 and 2020. they did everything in their power (and i mean everything) to qualify in men's basketball. I have absolutely nothing against the Chinese sport in general but I'm glad their men's basketball failed to qualify and not only because it's Iran in their place, I would say the same if it was any other Asian team.

Turkey was really close but at the end of the day the better team won. . congrats to Turkey and Boskovic and to my favorite team Italy for the bronze.

that China's TO in last 5 seconds against Poland. that's when everything started to happen in favor of Iran. our chance was close to zero before that game. sorry for Tunisia. they wasted their chance against Puerto Rico and that actually helped us. Nigeria wouldn't beat China if they had no reason for that.

I read the rules for 1000th times. it doesn't say anything about what if a country has more than one athlete inside the qualification zone ! it's all about re-allocation. that's OK if they are both from the same weight. (one can withdraw, so we can send the next one) but if one of them is from 84kg and one from +84kg. the next guy in the ranking is actually different. (and from different countries) Ganjzadeh and Poursheib are close friends but this is 1 chance for lifetime to be at the Olympics. none of them will give up that easily. if we can't have our own trials to determine the best. I think our coach (who is a nice person) also prefers the ranking solves the problem for him, then he can tell the other guy. "sorry bro, I wanted to send you but that's WKF's rule, I can't do anything about it "

I think Egonu was top scorer for "both sides" she had something like 100 foot fouls. this Serbian team is really close to be unbeatable. Boskovic is their star but it's not just her. they have good players in every positions.

After some good results in the past tournaments, this Japan K1 turned out to be disappointing for our Olympic chances. at first look it's OK we have 3 in the final and few more for the bronze but in fact none of them are our Olympic candidates Ganjzadeh and Askari both should fight for the bronze, Ganjzadeh lost to another Iranian but the biggest disappointment was for the women's side, we had 3 in race for the Olympic quota and none of them made it to the medal round. we are back to the square one when only 2 quotas were possible. btw it will be a tough battle for Iran's +75kg spot. Ganjzadeh is currently second but Poursheib and Abazari are right next to him and they are both in the final here in Tokyo. which makes me think what if Iran has someone in top 2 in both 84kg and +84kg ranking ? it will be up to Iran to decide ? or the Karateka with highest points will qualify. that's important for other countries as well.

There are some other minor possibilities to consider because the first tie breaker is rank in the group if Tunisia loses to Angola with 7-14 margin, Iran will be (at best) 3rd in the group. that will leave no chance for Iran. Tunisia can lose and still qualify, if they lose by 10 or less they still will win the group (if Iran also beats PHI) Angola is still alive too, if they win by 11 or more. they will win the group (or if they just win and Iran loses) in both cases for Tunisia and Angola they need China to beat Nigeria . the other group with CHN-NGR is less complicated, the winner will win the group. if Nigeria lose they will be eliminated for sure because after all an African team (Angola or Tunisia) will win Group N.

oh well. that was a very good game until the last 3 minutes, I think the moment they started to think "we can win the game" they choked again. the last 4-5 plays were disastrous. mostly TOs or very bad shoots. if basketball was 37 or 38 minutes we were in the second round with 2 wins btw I think Iran deserved more than a 0-3 record in the first round. we weren't that bad to be winless after the first round, and the loss against Tunisia was mostly the result of the previous game. and now they regret it much more seeing China not advancing from the easiest group of the tournament. they thought they are done after the Puerto Rico game.

I think worst or best depends on the expectations. we had Olympics with 1 medal but that was OK in that period of time because of the war, 8 years boycott etc. worst - Beijing 2008, that was a nightmare for me. only 1 bronze until the last day when our very last athlete won the gold to make it at least less worse. best - London 2012, the interesting thing is we are still receiving medals from that Olympics Iran finished the games with 4 gold medals (already an all time high) but re-testing gave Iran 2 more already and we are waiting for one more. 13 medals, 7 gold medals is not something we can repeat in near future. and actually when i look back to the Games, we could easily had 3 or 4 more gold medals. our best gold medal chance in Greco Wrestling got robbed blatantly, another guy in freestyle beat his main (and only) rival from Russia and was on his way to the gold medal but got injured in the semifinal and went to the hospital. but my best Olympics was 2000 Sydney and that's why I use that logo in my avatar, winning 3 gold medals for the first time.