MHSN

to me it says there is nothing to show ! should I do something ?! btw there are two Iranian channels covering the event. and they BOTH show the same thing (wrestling) ! even if it's just a qualification match vs Turkmenistan ! and now one of them went to Kabaddi !

and we have a trap shooter from Mongolia, she scored only 10 out of 75 in first day of women's trap !

I'm quite sure Indonesia was expecting much more when they dropped Kyorugi events to add stupid boring Poomsae events into the competition. they will most probably win just a bronze out of 4 possible medal chances. we also secured two medals in Poomsae. both in individual events. I hope for two silver . because Korea is untouchable here. but disappointed with Shooting results. both mixed teams narrowly failed to advance to the final and I never expect anything in Shotgun events. now waiting for my favorite sport Wrestling . I hope for good TV coverage but I'm not that optimistic. at best they will broadcast only "one mat" and we will miss few important matches

same in Sepaktakraw . damn this is the worst website I ever seen, even 2002 Busan website was better and I'm not kidding.

I'm doomed to support Iranians. no matter what. if I support that jerk Rostami. then I can cheer for anybody else but Hosseinkhani is a nice guy too. but he is sometimes too nice to his opponents. most of Iranian wrestling fans hate him big time because he is a choker. he lost so many matches in last seconds. it didn't happen just once or twice but so many times ! two of those wrestlers that beat him by a last second takedown are here Abdurakhmanov and Fujinami. this is his latest masterpiece against Fujinami at the 2017 Worlds !

he is such a nice guy and I really like him. I'm really sorry for the way he lost the Olympic medal. even though that was his own mistake and the ref's call was absolutely correct. cruel but correct. can't wish him luck here since we have a wrestler not far from him in the draw he is already an Asian Games champion. this time he has to go through 3 world medalists to go to the final. Fujinami then Kumar/Batirov and then Abdurakhmanov/Hosseinkhani.

I was checking the schedule , we will have athletes in 10 sports tomorrow. we will win medals in Taekwondo and Wrestling for sure. there are very slim chances in Shooting and Fencing. no chance for gold in Poomsae Taekwondo. because South Korea will swap all 4 gold medals. but in Wrestling. one gold medal is (99%) sure thing but I hope for one more. I can't remember the last time we won a gold medal in 1st day of the competition. usually our favorite sports start in the 2nd week of the Games but this time is a bit different. again no seeding in wrestling. so we have some not balanced draws. but in general I'm OK with our draw in wrestling. 74kg is really terrible. top half is too easy while in bottom half we have Sushil Kumar - Batirov in the first round. and then Ganzorig (remember this guy ? Mongolian coaches stripping in Rio ) and Fujinami. plus our Hosseinkhani and Abdurakhmanov. almost all of these guys are World medalists. at 57 we will have the early final in 1st round, Takahashi (current world champion) vs Kang of North Korea. our Reza Atri will have win-or-die match in 2nd round. he has to beat Sandeep Tomar of India to stand a chance for bronze. because the winner of this match will lose to Erdenebat (MGL) in semifinal. and the match I'm waiting for will be 97kg semifinal between Karimi and the Russian born Uzbek guy Ibragimov. this guy is something like a nightmare for our wrestling he beat whoever we send in past few years. most of his wins were close but he knew how to beat our wrestlers. this time our federation made a 90kg guy to move up weight to challenge this guy. I wonder how Karimi will do against a guy around 10kg heavier than himself ! Ibragimov is 34 ! I don't want him to retire before losing to one of our wrestlers

The official website is not just bad. it's also very late. Iranian sources are reporting start list / draw for different sports while the official websites only published some start list for Shooting and Rowing. and their Rowing start list is also incomplete ! here is for the men's single sculls, they just forgot "Heat 1" ! https://en.asiangames2018.id/sport/rowing/event/rowing-men-single-sculls/ I also think they forgot Heat 2 for Women's Single Sculls. I'm quite sure we entered rowers for both events but none of them are in the list.

he just subbed in 3 minutes ago. they also played with reserve GK who made two terrible mistakes gifting goals to Malaysia.

Malaysia is leading Korea 2-0 at half time. if they somehow manage to win the match by a miracle the last matchday in group F (with Iran and Saudi Arabia) will be interesting. because I'm sure nobody wants to win the group and face Korea in next round ps: because of one day rest between matches which is not normal in football. teams sometimes rest their best players as Korea did today.

I was expecting a convincing win for Qatar but that was humiliating. specially the first half no surprise our handball and disappointment are very close friends ! here is the next round groups in handball, we have to play MUCH better than this to beat either Korea or Bahrain. which looks unlikely. A) B)

watching INA-KSA handball match. Indonesia isn't that bad. they actually scored a goal after only 2-3 minutes. they will lose big but that won't be a record

Kabaddi draw Men's A) B) Women's A) B) I think we will see India, Korea, Iran and Pakistan in men's semifinal. and in the women's side it will be India, Thailand, Iran and probably South Korea.

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

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.

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.

women's handball draw is really funny. we have South Korea. China. Kazakhstan and North Korea in one group ! while the other group includes Japan and 4 weak teams. which means we will see Thailand or Hong Kong in semifinal !!

well sometimes. maybe not this much but there are always few withdrawals. I think one team per sport is quite normal but this time basketball beat the rest in term of withdrawals mostly because OCA doesn't really ban or punish the teams because of late withdrawals. they always threaten to do that though I would like to see some qualifications at least for team sport but then OCA doesn't like the idea. they want to give chances to weaker countries to participate. in some countries they only get financial support when it comes to the Olympics or AG. that's why for example you rarely see Mongolia or Maldives in Asian Championships but they usually send few teams to the Asian Games.

Thailand even played in World Championship not so long ago. they were supposed to be better than this but yeah that was a low level match. still better than Indonesia-Malaysia match

UAE withdrew. only two teams left in this group which means Iran and Syria are already in quarterfinal ! not a good news I'm quite sure our coach would prefer playing more games before the knockout rounds. and this is funny we were supposed to have Phippines, UAE and Syria in our group. Philippines withdrew but later came back. and since two other teams from group D withdrew as well they sent the Philippines to that group and now group B is left with only two teams ! which means one team between Philippines, China or Korea will get eliminated before the semifinal.

I was watching Hungary-Macedonia match and at 12-12 in 5th set , after a good serve from Hungary the ball went to Hungarian side and they spiked it easily but a Macedonian player intentionally pulled the net made referees to believe that was a net touch from Hungary and gave that very important point to Macedonia. that was really disgusting some players/teams have no shame. Macedonia is nothing in volleyball and I hope they remain nothing with such disgusting players. looks like we really need video challenge to stop this kind of cheating.

nope. maybe he is becoming another Ilyin ! as we could see Ilyin only few times in an Olympic cycle, only Olympics, Asian Games and once or twice in the World Championships. but from what I heard he was injured last year. no judgement from myself I like him personally

and if Kazakhstan wasn't banned we would see Ilya Ilyin and another high quality Kazakh guy as well. you don't see high quality competitions in Asia in heavier weights that much. but the funny thing is despite quality competition in this weight I expect our 94kg guy Moradi to beat all of 105kg weightlifters he is lifting some crazy numbers recently. breaking world record everyday for the breakfast only Nurudinov is probably capable of lifting more than him. even though we didn't see Nurudinov after his gold medal in Rio. we don't know if he is in a good shape or not.

now we know why China registered in weightlifting https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1068823/chinas-weightlifters-hope-iwf-will-allow-them-to-compete-at-asian-games-despite-year-long-ban even if they clear China to participate there are still questions about their " whereabouts" as mentioned in the article. in weightlifting you can't just jump in and participate. they have to test you for few months prior to the competition. this will be ridiculous they let China to participate but knowing IWF that most probably will happen. this will affect our gold medal chances directly 85kg gold medal is 100% gone with Tian Tao. even though I doubt still anybody can touch our possible gold medals at 94 and +105. and there will be a hell of a competition for 105kg with Yang Zhe , Olympic champion Nurudinov, the other Uzbek guys and two Iranian weightlifters , including the current World Champion Hashemi.

nope. still wrong for me. I noticed that yesterday. I think the official website tries to adjust the timing with each user's time zone . that's why they are making such a mess.