MHSN

Talakhadze is just great, he broke two world records and won the gold easily, when was the last time he missed an attempt ?! but today was another sad day in this sport, the IWF obviously has problem with Salimi ! the jury reverted his "good lift" twice here !!!! the same happened in Rio Olympics. this is funny because I had seen worse, much worse in this competition and looks like they are only strict on Salimi. it didn't change anything for Iran, they just replaced Salimi and Alihosseini on the podium and obviously I like Alihosseini much more. but still that was unfair and dirty. specially his last attempt. they probably wanted to punish him for his "reaction" . Salimi at the podium took both his medals off his chest to show his protest . that was a "better protest" they almost banned him because of his protests in Rio. but what about Alihosseini, he started terrible but got better slowly and 251kg was quite easy for him, no surprise that was his 1st competition after 8 years. he didn't participate even at a local competition in Iran. I know people will talk about his doping cases but people in Iranian weightlifting community know he was innocent in both cases. in 1st case he was just a teenager and a member of the team (the whole team tested positive) and he took whatever the Bulgarian coach told him to. and in the 2nd case, he was framed. he is the only one with a slim chance to challenge Talakhadze . he won silver with only 3-4 months of training and after 8 years of suspension. obviously he can lift more, much more. and Iran won the men's team title for the 1st time, not that I care much about this, (I care more about medals) but people here consider that a great achievement !

Happy for the 2nd gold but Hashemi was indeed lucky, his total record was 13kg lower than Moradi's record one weight down ! but still that's a world title. Hashemi was below his own PB though. now waiting for the super heavyweight clash between Talakhadze and Salimi/Alihosseini , while Talakhadze is clear favorite here I still hope for an upset. Alihosseini is a monster but being banned for 8 years I don't expect much from him for now.

Yes he is and I think I wrote about him before. and while I don't say such a thing for any other athlete, he was probably not guilty in both cases.

Did he ever compete for Egypt ? I was wondering since IWF database has no history of that, but he is such a great weightlifter and also a nice guy. he made a big mistake in his CJ attempt, that last attempt didn't change anything for him.. 3 more kilos would put him in bronze medal position but luckily for Mousavi he went for 220. even though 220 looked like his max for today but he had to try 223 for the bronze.

Moradi wasn't stupid to start with 230 or something while he only needed 220 to secure the gold in first place and then he broke the WR twice . great result for him, he wanted to break this CJ record for a long time. and also that was a bit surprising bronze medal for Mousavi, he could beat Didzbalis for the silver but still bronze is very good for him. and Rostami can go to hell now

Coach ? that idiot works ALONE, he doesn't want a coach, he thinks he doesn't need a coach and even in past when he has a coach he showed he doesn't listen to the coach, the whole week he was talking about his knee injury, he claims he can't even walk and blah blah and yet he started the competition wtih 212 !!! while he just needed 205 to challenge the Cuban guy for the gold. Rostami is a jerk and despite being angry I'm somehow happy he lost here, I hate him more than any other Iranian athlete for the reasons I talked about here before. but yeah he already has excuses about this. injury, visa, earthquake in his hometown. blah blah

competing against USA was never an issue . actually an American team on his way to Iran for the World Club Champs this week . Israel is a different story, they want to "show" they don't recognize it as a country. that's a long and stupid story and I already explained it few times in this forum. that was a nonnegotiable policy until recently but now even the wrestling federation and some parliament members asked for a change in this. since it only hurts the Iranian athletes. that's not even a "protest" because they always fake injuries or other reasons to avoid them.

During the World U23 Champs. Iran's best chance for the gold (Alireza Karimi. world senior bronze medalist) lost a match intentionally to avoid Israel in the next round. he was leading 3-2 againt a Russia wrestler (eventual gold medalist) but 90 seconds before the end he was told by his coaches to lose because the Israeli guy surprisingly beat the American wrestler on the other mat that was hot topic in Iran in past few days, that was shameful and disgusting if you watch the match coaches clearly and loudly tells him to lose "Ali you must lose" while he was confused, they threw the challenge cube to stop the match and explain him the situation. now it made into the international media and UWW has no other option to take action here, I doubt they ban the Iranian wrestling since they need Iran but a long term suspension for this guy and his coach is quite possible now, even though they are both innocent in this. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1058634/investigation-launched-after-claim-iranian-wrestler-deliberately-lost-match-to-avoid-israeli-in-next-round

Saudi and Iranian clubs play each other regularly, no big deal. but seriously you think is that possible any of those teams can win the group ?! btw even before the political tension there were hatred between Iran and Saudi in football . much more than simple rivalry. this is funny the last time we played them was in 2009 when they beat Iran in Azadi stadium (the first Asian team to beat Iran in packed home stadium). since then the draw kept both teams separated.

there is no such a thing, WCh is WCh no matter what. congrats

Charron: .122kg Martinez Santiago: ..105kg Fattouh: ..113kg

I was thinking which AFC teams has a chance to advance, the last world cup was disastrous (unlike 2010) and I hope this time at least one of them makes it to the next round. being in pot 3 we were supposed to get the easier group but nah we got the a tough one , I'm sure we will play good and Spain and Portugal won't have it easy against Iran but after all they will find a way to score I really don't think there is a chance for Iran to advance. Saudis got the easiest group but they suck and I hate them, so no chance kidding aside, they are not just good enough, they don't have a fighting mentality to challenge better teams, Australia's group is no easy but they usually play better against non-AFC teams. they are not the favorite here but they have a chance no realistic chance for South Korea Japan has the best chance to advance among the Asian teams. Group H is very balanced , even though Japan is still the weakest team in that group . bottom line, realistically all 5 AFC teams probably will get eliminated in the 1st round but I think Japan and Australia have some chances if they play at their best.

well, looks like we have to wait another 4 years for passing the group stage Group B (and maybe D) was the only group I wanted to avoid . no luck here. Morocco match is winnable, 50-50 , win, loss , draw, all possible, but it will be hard almost impossible to beat one of those two teams. unless Queiroz knows few secrets about his own NT. parking the bus strategy almost worked against Argentina 4 years ago but I don't think we can do that vs Spain here. they won't underestimate Iranian defense he same way Argentina did.

I'm a bit confused about the format, while they talk about 4 groups of 4, the FIVB official website writes something else The 24 teams will be spread across four pools of six teams playing in around-robin system with the top four teams advancing to a second round of preliminary matches featuring two pools of eight teams playing in four cities. http://italy-bulgaria2018.fivb.com/en/competition/formula but when they said 3 matches per team in 2nd round ,it means you won't play all 4 teams of the other group. probably only 2 of them and maybe 1 team from your own group once again, or maybe I'm completely wrong here ! ------------------------ I'm OK with our group even though Group D is probably the toughest one, (all groups look more or less in the same level to be honest) we should able to handle Cuba and Puerto Rico, we never played Finland before but I think we can beat them, out of the best teams in the world we usually play better vs Poland. and Bulgaria (despite being a very good team) is not unbeatable. but being in the same group with France and Brazil in 2nd round is NO good, these two teams usually beat Iran quite easily btw we had a very good chance to win a world medal back in 2014, we lost it against Germany, I don't think we can repeat those results this time, but who knows. ..

The Start list http://www.iwf.net/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2017/11/StartBook_Anaheim.pdf interesting to have someone from Chile at 85kg tied with Rostami as the highest entry weight !! a bit of research shows that guy is from Cuba and didn't compete since 2013 ! Chile just its first ever wrestling medal at the worlds by a Cuba this year . looks like they are investing on Cuban athletes based on entries all 8 Iranians have a chance for medal. I think 4 medals are guaranteed (if they don't bomb out) Rostami, Moradi, Salimi and Alihosseini . I hope for more.

Not a surprise at all, they are better than India for sure actually India (alongside Hong Kong) is the weakest team in the qualifier. Syria is good. but no way they can qualify, Jordan just ate them alive the previous game. they will be grouped with Jordan, Lebanon, China, South Korea and New Zealand in the next round, they have to finish in top 4 to qualify, not a chance.

well Korea beat them twice in FIBA Asia Cup few months ago, so not a big surprise, even though I was expecting NZ to win this one. I like this qualification format, thsi is good to have NT games throughout the year and not just the summer. even though it will take time for everybody to adjust to this format. our first games is against Iraq tomorrow and I think that's a dangerous game since Iran is missing some key players. we don't have a proper center for this game. I won't be surprised if Iraq wins this one . we will have Australia, Philippines and probably Japan (or Taiwan) in next round so every single win in round 1 matters.

Rostami received his visa last night, only 2 more left out of 8 weightlifters, (Sohrab Moradi and Ali Miri) and they are expected to get it in time . actually that was wrong by foreign media to talk only about Rostami, the whole Iranian team was in danger . they just called Rostami and Ayoub Mosavi to Dubai (no US embassy in Iran) for the 2nd time for more information or something like that.

Finally half of the Iranians (including 5 weightlifters) received their VISA , just yesterday they said they are not hopeful to get visa in time cuz they heard nothign from the Americans. still both Olympic champions Rostami and Moradi are without visa but apparently they are expected to get it in few days. they had this fear of losing the world championship in past few weeks, I hope it didn't affect their training program. without China and Russia in the competition, Iran is clearly the best men's team in the competition. 6-7 of them will be favorite for medal. actually Rostami and Moradi (if participate) are sure golds unless they bomb out.

After years finally i see a bit (just a bit tough) of improvement in our Epee team. after a top 32 finish by Rezaei yesterday, Iran being seed 23 finished 12 in team competition losing 45-44 in last two matches. and most importantly they beat two Asian rivals China and Japan after so many years ! this is good less than a year before the Asian Games next year. looks like getting some better results in Sabre motivated them to work on other weapons as well.

Iran Colombia 12 Romania 11 Poland 10 Spain 9 Tunisia 8 Serbia 7 India 6 Slovenia 5 Argentina 4 Malta 3 Ireland 2 United States 1

Iran Romania 11 Poland 10 Spain 9 Tunisia 8 Serbia 7 India 6 Slovenia 5 Argentina 4 Malta 3 Ireland 2 United States 1

Iran Poland 10 Spain 9 Tunisia 8 Serbia 7 India 6 Slovenia 5 Argentina 4 Malta 3 Ireland 2 United States 1

Am I supposed to post my vote right now ? the last pages I checked don't look like a music contest

Can someone tell me when (date and time) exactly I have to post my vote here ? weekends here are a bit different than the rest of the world and I want to know If I'm available at that time or not.