MHSN

interesting that China registered a full team for the Weightlifting competition https://en.asiangames2018.id/athletes/sport/wl/country/CHN/page/1/ They are supposed to be banned like Kazakhstan ! how come they have a team here ?! (even though registering doesn't necessarily mean they are going to participate)

well the official website is indeed terrible but I'm not surprised at all. I just hope it works during the games. at least I can see the participants list in the athletes section.

well we knew about this guy. he is definitely good but he was wrestling at 125kg until few months ago ! cutting weight at this age is good to win few Junior medals because he is probably bigger and heavier than his opponents. but in long term that will ruin his career. he has to move up to 125kg because of his age and then he has to challenge Geno Petriashvili for the spot ! I don't know how but Georgia always produce great wrestlers in superheavyweight. some of them are already wrestling for other countries since they can't beat Geno

This is the final list of Iranian athletes for the 2018 Asian Games, 378 athletes in total. 280 male and 98 female M W Total Aquatics - Swimming 4 4 Aquatics - Diving 2 2 Aquatics - Water Polo 13 13 Archery 8 5 13 Athletics 10 2 12 Basketball 12 12 Basketball 3x3 4 4 8 Boxing 3 3 Canoeing - Sprint 11 6 17 Canoeing - Slalom 2 2 4 Cycling - Track 6 1 7 Cycling - Road 4 1 5 Cycling - Mountain Bike 3 1 4 Equestrian 5 1 6 Fencing 7 4 11 Football 20 20 Gymnastics - Artistic 4 4 Handball 16 16 Judo 4 2 6 Kabaddi 12 12 24 Karate 4 4 8 Martial Arts - Jujitsu 8 2 10 Martial Arts - Kurash 8 4 12 Martial Arts - Pencak Silat 6 3 9 Martial Arts - Sambo 2 2 4 Martial Arts - Wushu 4 5 9 Paragliding 3 3 Rowing 9 6 15 Sailing 2 2 Sepak Takraw 12 12 Shooting 10 9 19 Sport Climbing 4 4 8 Squash 2 3 5 Table Tennis 4 4 8 Taekwondo 8 8 16 Tennis 3 3 6 Triathlon 1 1 Volleyball - Indoor 14 14 Volleyball - Beach 4 4 Weightlifting 8 8 Wrestling 12 12 TOTAL 280 98 378

Due to current economical situation in Iran (the collapse of Rial) the sport ministry ordered all Sports federation to cancel all their abroad camps or competitions unless it's highly necessary I expect most foreign coaches to leave Iran after the Asian Games. the Iranian federations have to pay them twice of what they had to pay two months ago !

we also have cold (that's a relative word I know) winters here. -10 is pretty normal at night in winter but nah I'm not perfectly fine with that I need 20kg clothes to be able to leave the house. not sure which one I prefer +40 or -10 ?! probably none of them. by "here" I mean where I live. north and south of Iran are two completely different stories.

and 40 is considered too high ? I just checked the temperature right now where I live. it says 38 and I'm fine with that comparing to what we had 2 weeks ago which was impossible to leave the house. this is a bit old video but in some cities in South of Iran you can cook egg in the street under the sun in something around 55C ! and that's few years ago. this year was much worse.

Yes in all sports. winning the Gold medal in Asian Games or winning a medal of any color in the Olympics + winning gold or silver in World Championships will allow them to skip the military service. I believe that World Championship part only applies to Olympic sports. so only AG, Olympics and the World Championship count and in this case in Jakarta only gold medalists will have that privilege . but this mostly helps younger athletes. because when you are 26-27 or older you already had to deal with the military service. last time in Incheon Iran won 21 gold medals by 32 athletes (20 individual + 12 volleyball team member) but only 3 of 4 of them used the rule. for the rest that was already late.

Iranian sport federations are announcing their rosters for the Games and it seems we are bringing everything we have to the competition ! I can say the only sport we are not sending the best possible team is football. while this is an U23 tournament (plus 3 Over 23) we are sending U21 team . some other countries do the same while South Korea will even bring Son Heung-min ! obviously he wants to win the gold to avoid military service. the same rules exist in Iran too. that's why we are sending our A volleyball team only few days before the World Championship. which will ruin Iran's chance to get good result in the Worlds but it seems some players wanted to play here for that reason. even in Handball we are bringing all available players. even our European-based players will join the team after the 1st round. Still I'm not really optimistic about the Games. two of our top sports (Wrestling and Taekwondo) aren't in good situation. last time in Incheon we won almost half of our gold medals in these two sports (6 wrestling, 4 Taekwondo) but this year I don't expect more than half of that from these 2 ! even though they made some change in wrestling squad , gives me a bit more hope. also in Karate there were a bit controversy about the team selection. they are sending bigger names here not necessarily the best athletes. btw while we are expecting something around 20 gold medals but I believe 3 of our athletes are very strong candidates for the gold. I have to say 99% sure they will win the gold. two of our Olympic Champions Sohrab Moradi (Weightlifting) and Hassan Yazdani (Wrestling) plus our discus thrower Ehsan Haddadi.

The officiating was really terrible. specially the center referee who hated Chamizo for whatever reason. how the hell he gave 2pts to Burroughs for that last second action ?! even a kid who read wrestling rules knows that for a takedown 5 parts of your opponent should touch the mat. Chamizo was on his four. even though I also have my doubts about Burroughs's TD in middle of 2nd period and also Chamizo's 4pts throw near the end of the match. both wrestlers lost their challenges early in the match and nobody could challenge those crazy actions near the end. that was a very interesting match between two great wrestlers.

that was a clear goal at the end. what a shame.

AVC invented a new stupid/crazy format for all its competitions. they seed teams based on previous competitions. top 3 teams in Group A. next 3 in Group B .... and then everybody enter the knockout round. for example during the Asian Women's Club Champs most teams didn't know who is the their next opponent until they get the official schedule the night before the match but now we have Asian U20 Champs in Bahrain. again with the same crazy format but also with full of surprises. Japan for the first time ever failed to even enter top 8 because they lost to Chinese Taipei which also lost to Thailand but we will have Iraq in semifinal !! they just beat China funny note: Malaysia finished last despite winning a match vs Maldives ! and Maldives will finish 22nd without a single win thanks to this super crazy format.

I have to read all the qualification rules carefully to have a better prediction. for examples in sports like Table Tennis or Cycling it will depend on the qualification rules. for example I know we won't get 3 free quotas in Cycling anymore. so I prefer to wait after the Asian Games (where we bring all we have to the competition) to have a better prediction. btw I see some users expect few quotas in Karate, you guys should really read the qualification rules. this is a world wide sport and only 10 spots available for each event. it will be extremely hard to qualify. Iran is a powerhouse in this sport but still I will be VERY happy with only 3 quotas.

U mean in details for each sport ? or the general schedule ? you can find all of them here http://www.tpenoc.net/?p=17475 TPE NOC official website is always great in publishing official documents

thanks. now this makes sense . that's a shame though. but that's something we (Iranians) have to live with and this is not going to change anytime soon.

I have a question here, Can they predict the draw before announcing the pools ? is it purely based on the world ranking ? if yes do they get the list of registered fencers before the competition to predict anything ?! because I know when the pools are out, withdrawing from the competition means you also can't participate in team event. that wasn't an old injury. they would bring Fotouhi instead and even if that was a last minute injury we should still see his name in the list like all those Congolese fencers. it doesn't make sense after all. not a big deal though as you said Round of 32 or max 16 is the best we should expect from him. but still that was surprising for me. but you might be right, I know they care more about the world team ranking because of the Olympic qualification. to keep Iran in top 8. I know it's still early for the Olympic but as long as you are high in WR you get easier opponents in early rounds and it's easier to keep the ranking.

unbelievable funny mistake by the organizers. they just forgot UAE and Palestine during the men's football draw no re-draw. Palestine is now added to group A and UAE to group E

and Iran lost to Georgia ! this reminds me of losing to China in Asian Champs final which was another "Golden opportunity" . it seems our Sabre team is not "good" anymore. they didn't lose to average teams like Georgia and China for 3-4 years and now they are losing twice in a row.

looks like a golden chance for Iran to enter the semifinal. even though Georgia is no easy after beating USA but still Iran will be favorite here. even though they still have to beat one "big team" for a medal which is unlikely but even a 4th place will be good. btw Iran actually has 4 sabre fencers there. so the question is why Rahbari didn't participate in individual event ?! another possible Israel draw maybe

yeah he thinks he is the only one allowed to make "empty threats" (or maybe not that much empty ?!) Iranian officials are master in empty stupid threats lol but that "mother of all wars" from Rouhani was something new. btw the idiot knows nothing about Iran, I'm quite sure he can't find the country on the map. and that makes things unpredictable. hard to use a laughing icon here since we are talking about the future of my country here.

another 15-14 loss to an eventual medalist maybe next year

Two of Iranian girls made it to the main draw in women's sabre. that looks like a no big deal in general (because world champs is usually easier than World Cups in earlier rounds because of max 4 fencers per country rule) but apparently this is the first time ever for Iranian female fencers ! even though I don't trust Iranian media but it's hard to check older results. we used to participate in Olympics in women's foil but that was without qualification. btw looks like no chance for a world medal this year again, Abedini and Pakdaman will run into each other (if they win 1st round) and the winner has a long road to the medal with two Koreans, Anstett and Homer in the same bracket. and I wonder why they send only 3 male sabre fencers ! this already ruined their chance in team event. with 3 fencers and one of them is Baher ! once Iran lost the world bronze to Romania back in 2016 only because of him.

well he is the reason Netherlands or Italy (or maybe both) missed the world cup remember his unbelievable mistake in Sweden

yeah and they didn't even need that. Belgium could not create anything dangerous against solid France defense

well yeah Iranian media talk about it everyday specially when Cakir is assigned for one of the semifinals. but I'm not sure yet. that would be nice to have some Iranians in the final. since Iran will never play in a World Cup final. btw he is not a nobody, he was in Olympic final. AFC Asian Cup final. AFC champions league final and FIFA World Club Cup final. almost every possible final for an Asian referee. and he didn't have to use VAR so far so I guess that won't be a wrong decision but still who knows