MHSN

I understand Mollaei, I personally don't blame him even though he is exaggerating things to get IJF's support. and obviously he is lying about losing the semifinal on purpose (in a new interview to some Persian media he talks about Casse like he is such a weak Judoka and he can beat Casse any day) and beside that Israel isn't his only reason for doing that. he had other personal problems with Miresmaeili (the current Iran judo federation president) and he will do everything to hurt Miresmaeili as much as possible. Iran Sport federations are just following the orders, I'm quite sure nobody is happy about it. Miresmaeili himself is the biggest victim of this policy. he was bigger than Mollaei at the time. I heared from first hand witnesses about what happened to him in Athens the night of the Olympics draw . (and he was supposed to carry the flag the next day in opening ceremony) the politician's point of view ? oh I doubt they even think. one stupid person said something 40 years ago and they are just following without even thinking about what they are going to gain from such stupid policy. 40 years ago it wasn't a big problem because there were only 1 or 2 possible matchup with Israel in 4 years Olympic cycle but we know it's different nowadays. btw Iran NOC sent a letter to IOC protesting about IJF mixing sports and politics ! (that's a bit funny I know) and IJF changed its twitter to ISupportMollaei, I think they will really make a nice Hollywood movie from this with Vizer being the hero for saving Mollaei's life. probably taking a bullet for him.

IJF made a nice story out of it. they probably can even make a movie. (unfortunately no movie about the Algerian Judoka, that's not an interesting topic as much as Iran) https://www.ijf.org/news/show/the-true-story-of-a-fight-for-life and to make a good movie, you have to be prepared and IJF was well prepared . interesting that they took pictures/videos of him and his coach long before the matches, they set the whole thing and the Iranian officials were stupid enough to fall into the trap. now we know more about the truth actually they knew it (or at least they were suspicious), that's why they didn't send anybody else, they also didn't want to send Mollaei (that's why Judoinside wrote an article about that but they later deleted it, it seems that website is so close to IJF, they even knew IJF's secret plans) but he threatened the Iranian officials that he will participate under IJF flag so they let him participate. IJF had this plan for few months, they talked to Mollaei before about it, thanks to Mollaei now they have hard evidence to put Iran under pressure. I wrote about this possibility in April, that was when Mollaei started to feel he doesn't need Iran anymore, he thinks he is #1 and he is marrying a German girl. so he can do whatever he wants. as someone who knows almost everything inside and out about the sport system in Iran, I can tell most of what he claims in that interview is correct, but that family part is a big fat lie, that's actually what IJF is putting in his mouth, he doesn't say that directly. he is now IJF's slave, he will do whatever IJF tells him to do. IJF is his only option. but I wonder if they really threatened his family he was only worried about his family when he was in Japan ? he is not worried anymore ? I know how they threaten, they tell you "if you do that, you will have problems" (Mollaei also says such thing in his interview and I believe him) they never say exactly what kind of problems, to make you keep guessing. but in fact there is no "official rule" forcing athletes to boycott Israelis . this is an unwritten policy . that is in fact an empty threat and Mollaei knows that. Mollaei opened the Pandora's box, nobody dared to do that before, I'm not sure that will benefit him too. he will be easily forgotten if he doesn't win the gold in Tokyo. and obviously this is not going to help the young kids training Judo in Iran because now Iran Judo Federation being suspended is 100% guaranteed and I'm afraid the consequences won't be limited to Judo. (which is not even 1% important here) people are stupid if they think that will force Iran to change a policy, behind the scene talks maybe but obvious and direct pressure never works because Iranians are stupidly proud and never give up on pressure even if that's destroying. Iran boycotted two Olympics before, they can boycott more Olympics and live with that. only Iranian ordinary athletes (and fans) will get hurt but who cares. bottom line, This policy is not going to change unless the whole system changes in Iran which I lost hope to see that in my life time, that will happen one day but not anytime soon.

another failure in the final. typical of her. it should be another 8th place but the German girl beat her by being more disastrous

so if I'm not wrong . quotas in women's 10m air pistol will be between Golnoush always chokes in the final. there are 4 other challengers in the final for the quota. this is her 3rd final in past few months, let's see if she loses this chance too or not. not optimistic

based on the rules, countries with 2 quotas or more can't participate in the Continental qualification event. what's the point of hosting the event for Italy when they can't even participate ?!

and it was 78-67 with 2:20 to go , it turned to 78-81 for Puerto Rico in 2 minutes. well bad news keep coming the word heartbroken is very fitting now.

I'm speechless. 18pts lead in middle of 4th quarter, 11pts lead with less than 3 minutes to go and still we managed to lose this one. even Singapore or Bangladesh couldn't do that. well done, bravo

Saeid Mollaei is in Germany and he is not coming back to Iran, apparently he asked Marius Vizer (IJF's president) to help him participate for the refugee team in Tokyo. I know he wanted to do this for a long time, I wrote about that here, and it's not only about that Israel thing, and we knew IJF's president himself was encouraging him to do that. and unlike what he will tell the media, he tried his best to beat Casse and he most probably wanted to face Muki in the final and then going to Germany. but he just lost. I understand Mollaei but he wasn't honest from the first day, and with this he created lots of problems for his teammates, obviously he doesn't care about that. considering the situation, Judo won't exist in Iran anymore. I think everybody will be happy this way, end of story.

only SVK, AUS and IND Richter (ISR) had qualified before.

maybe there are minor differences but this is more or less the same. you should know there are 3 different styles in Ju-jitsu. Duo (something like Kata), fighting and Ne-waza. we have all 3 of them at the World Games. but the ne-waza style (the only style we had at the Asian Games, because that was the only style UAE wanted) is more or less the same as Brazilian ju-jitsu.

how come a team like Italy had no plan B !? you always need some players on stand by. Pietrini put Italy in a really bad situation if you want to leave the team you have to do that way before the main tournament. so there is a chance for Bosetti to recover for the QF, that's good news, even though just recovering is not enough, you have to be in good shape. but at least that gives options to the coach,

now CEV announced the schedule. nothing changed for Italy except now they have to go to Slovakia, win the match and then come back to Poland for the QF !!! so obviously they didn't lose on purpose (unless they didn't know the rules completely which is unlikely) . I was thinking why coach is not replacing Sorokaite but then after checking Italy's roster, there is no other reliable OH in their squad ?! I can see Lucia Bosetti in the list but I assume she is injured or something, there is no other way to explain how she was absent the whole tournament. (I can't remember I even saw her on the bench or anywhere else). but where is her sister ? where is Pietrini ? I know Sorokaite is OP and obviously not a good receiver, even Sylla is not a good receiver. things don't look good for Italy with such a weak reception and with no reserve OH. even beating Russia/Belgium is not a sure thing.

We had that at the Asian Games and to me that's the worst possible sport. I call it "cat fighting" and since UAE sponsors this sport in Asia , we will have it in all other multi-sports events.

well I think Italy did everything to lose, they had 5 serve errors in tie break and Sorokaite herself gave 4 points (3 directly and one more) because of her poor reception and still Mazzanti didn't replace her ! at first it was just weird for me the way Italy played in last 2 sets, then I came and read your posts about "hosts can't play together rule" so we know Italy will play Slovakia. but will they send Slovakia to the top half ? or they will send Italy to the bottom half ? if that's the case then I can say Italy lost the match on purpose .

at the end of the day Pourhosseini only needed a 9 in his last shot for the quota it will be hard for him to forget this for a while.

I was checking the table and it seems because of this Slovakia will be 3rd in the group and will play the knockout round match at home. they had to go to Poland in case of winning the match. if I read the table/schedule correctly. that justifies "not trying hard" in this match and being happy after the defeat.

oh after seven 10 in a row, I think 19 in last 2 shots and probably even 18 was enough for Pourhosseini to most probably secure the Olympic quota (or at the very least going to the final with so many already qualified shooters there) but then he scored a 9 and then 8. well you can't get lucky two days in a row. that was the opposite of yesterday .let's hope for better luck for him in Asian Champs still a good chance without China, India and Korea.

you can't fake injury several times, it happened before, no more room for that ! you had a good point here, with this, they are only punishing our own athletes, I don't know why people asking for more "punishment" just because it's Iran ? I never said anybody asks for banning Algeria for example. of course those who made such policy don't care if they IJF or IOC bans Iran or something, people probably don't remember Iran was the only ( am I right ?) country boycotted both 1980 and 1984 Olympics, of course we are not living in 1980s, there is no charismatic leader anymore and they have to justify their actions but they always say "sacrificing a medal is nothing comparing to those sacrificed their lives for the country" and in fact the only sport that matters in Iran is football . that's why the only international organization that can force a serious change in Iran is FIFA, not even UN but FIFA. FIFA did that before in 2006 and is doing it again on another matter, and in a good way. of course Judo is half dead here and if they continue the new policy of not even participating wherever Israel participates, there will be no motivation left for younger athletes to continue this path. in past they would count on luck and the draw but after that letter to IJF they decided to simply not participate. this way this is better to completely shut down Judo here. well that's the question I don't want to know the answer ! at least for now Israel sucks in almost every sport, in other sports they just have to avoid Israel in the first round and Israel usually don't go any further but what if they improve ? I don't know. actually Israel had won only 1 medal in World Taekwondo Championship and that medal happened because their fighter had to face Iran in QF back in 2005 and you know the rest ... btw, that only applies to head to head sports, weightlifting is not included. unless they have to stand on the same podium.

I can tell you here everybody (and I mean everybody) is convinced that Mollaei lost both matches intentionally ! actually I'm starting to think maybe they saw something I didn't notice and maybe I'm wrong and he is such a great actor of course the official news websites are silent about it, they just reported his results, but all of those Persian speaking media outside of Iran are reporting this like Mollaei lost on purpose.

I'm sure she doesn't mind the Olympic quota was the main goal here. she had won a world cup bronze before

Elaheh Ahmadi was expected to win the quota but 17 years old Armina Sadeghian took it instead. she was 8th after the 2nd group of shooters and she was lucky nobody from the last group surpassed her. Iran usually don't replace the shooters, that means no chance for Elaheh Ahmadi unless she tries 50m rifle 3 positions .

It seems we will have a "mixed team event" in Tokyo as exhibition . if you remember WT proposed that to IOC but that didn't work for them. but they are serious about getting it into the next Olympics in Paris. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/jiangsu/wuxi/2019-08/27/content_37506098.htm apparently we will have 4 teams in Tokyo, China qualified by winning the World Cup team Championships few days ago, there will be more qualification events for the next 3 teams. if you wonder how it works you can watch this. this is kind of funny because you can switch your player after minimum 20 seconds and if you send a male/female athlete your opponent "has" to send the same gender. obviously a country like Iran prefers to use the male fighters more, Iran lost the final to China and according to the Iranian coach, their "bottom" stopped working somewhere in middle of the match and they could not replace the player at will, they had to play however China wanted it (even though they were down already by a big margin) personally I'm against any kind of mixed team event and beside that this tag team idea is really not that good, players can easily get injured , but well that's fun to watch I have to admit. just "fun" beside that it was good to see Kimia Alizadeh back in action after a while and after something like 1000 surgeries. even though she gave up 9pts at once when the score was tied (3 head kick + 1 caution for falling + 5 for knockdown count)

I also personally don't think he lost on purpose but his reaction after giving up the first waza-ari was like he doesn't care anymore. but before that yeah he was even close to win by ippon couple of times. Judo is about seconds and moments and poor guy Mollaei had lots of things on his mind today. that probably justifies his lack of action in those seconds between Maisuradze's first and second scores. I heard some stories which confirm what I think myself, his coach being absent for the SF and then coming back for the bronze medal match can give a hint about what happened behind the scene.

I'm quite sure Mollaei tried his best and he just lost to Casse. and interestingly for me his coach wasn't there. I feel something happened behind the scene. we will know about it very soon. Edit: Mollaei also lost the bronze, this one was a bit dubious, and his coach was there unlike the semifinal. the funny thing is everybody here thinks he lost both matches intentionally. which is surely not true.

Maybe because the loser of 2nd semifinal has to fight the first bronze medal match , they changed the order to give him/ her more recovery time