MHSN

Schools and universities start in Iran, exactly in the first day of Fall, (somewhere around 20 September) I think First grade students have to go one day earlier. I remember I had to wear uniform for at least a year. (or maybe 2 ? ) but I think it depends on the school. no fixed rule about it. the last time I had to pick up my nephew from the school he was wearing uniform and he was 13. so I guess I was lucky with my schools. I remember when I asked my mom why I have to wear this, her answer was something like "they want kids from poor families don't feel sad and jealous about other kids wearing fancy clothes everyday" I don't know if she made up that or that was the school's official explanation and no, no flower for the teachers, only gift and present for the "teacher's day" that's somewhere in April or May. (we use a totally different calendar, I always have to convert dates, not that easy )

well the thing is Rifle/Pistol shooting is supposed to be unpredictable ! we saw dominant countries in other sports, seeing one country dominating this much is impressive, (only China could do that before) and with different shooters, it's not like having just couple of great shooters. it seems everybody in the Indian team is capable of reaching the final. and it seems the future will be even better. lol we had never been this dominant in wrestling, in Asia ? yes, but in the world stage we were always behind Russia / Soviet Union. and our current team is behind everybody

They should really ban India from Shooting World Cups. they are stealing all the medals. that's not fair

Congrats Poland. I know it doesn't change anything for the Olympic ticket of China. but at least now I can feel better for the rest of the day ! everything is always in China's favor in basketball. nice to see them losing.

and I think you wrote that before the last call in last 12 seconds on Slaughter . unbelievable. but wow what a steal while I was writing this. Poland is still alive.

because of the current economical situation in Iran, all of Iranian sport federations reduced their international trips to "only necessary competitions" and since there was no chance for Iran to qualify in the Worlds, they saved their limited budget and energy for the Asian Championship and the Asian Olympic Qualifiers.

per new rules , countries are limited to win only 1 quota (possible to get 2, but only if both of them win the gold) I think all Asian countries with "active rowing program" will win 1 quota and no more.

congrats Tunisia. I wasn't in the mood to even watch the today's game. but yeah as sport addict I couldn't keep myself not watching it.

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.