MHSN

Japan received the Wild Card for the 2019 World Championship http://www.ihf.info/en-us/mediacentre/news/newsdetails.aspx?ID=5650 just because they are the Olympic host ?!

Iran and Japan qualified to the final of AFC women's futsal championship and therefore qualified for the Youth Olympics

Iran NOC announced the complete list of sports and number of athletes they are going to send to the 2018 Asian Games. they list this by national federations for example we have the same federation for Canoeing, Rowing and Sailing or one federation for "other" martial arts sports (which doesn't have separate federations) and one for "other sports" they call it IFSA. some federations are already upset about their quotas. for example Cycling wants more after their recent success at the Asian MTB Champs or in Gymnastics they said they will either send a full team or nobody ! but here is the list. more or less the final list. in most sports ,they only send athletes who are capable of fighting for medals. they made some exceptions for few like Badminton, Tennis and Swimming and also they were less strict for female athletes as they want to develop women's program on those sports. I checked it with our 2014 delegation, we are sending all 24 sports we sent to Incheon 2014 plus few more. beside "new sports" we are going back in Water Polo and Equestrian after 12 years. in Squash after 1998. Triathlon is the only debutant from existing sports !! 1. Cycling (Road, Track and MTB): 9M + 2W 2. Shooting: 8M + 10W 3. Canoeing, Rowing and Sailing: 21M + 16W 4. Aquatics 4.1. Swimming: 5M 4.2. Water Polo: 13M 4.3. Diving: 2M 5. Athletics: 8M + 2W 6. Equestrian 6.1. Dressage: 4 (gender TBD) 6.2. Jumping: 4 (gender TBD) 7. Judo 7.1. Judo: 3M + 2W 7.2. Kurash: 6M + 6W 7.3. Jujitsu: 8M + 2W 8. Gymnastics Artistic: 2M 9. IFSA (Sepaktakraw): 12M 10. Archery 10.1. Recurve: 4M + 1W 10.2. Compound: 4M + 4W 11. Football: 20M 12. Table Tennis: 4M + 4W 13. Boxing: 3M 14. Martial Arts 14.1. Pencak Silat: 4M + 4W 14.2. Sambo: 2M + 2W 15. Sport Climbing: 4M + 4W 16. Wrestling 16.1. Freestyle: 6M 16.2. Greco-Roman: 6M 17. Weightlifting: 7M 18. Taekwondo: 9M + 9W 19. Karate: 4M + 4W 20. Wushu 20.1. Taolo: 4W 20.2. Sanda: 3M + 2W 21. Basketball 21.1. Basketball: 12M 21.2. 3x3 Basketball: 4M + 4W 22. Kabaddi: 12M + 12W 23. Fencing 23.1. Sabre: 4M 23.2. Epee: 3M 24. Volleyball 24.1. Indoor: 14M 24.2. Beach: 4M 25. Handball: 16M 26. Squash: 3M + 2W 27. Triathlon: 1W 28. Tennis: 3M + 3W 29. Badminton: 1M + 1W 30. Paragliding: 2M + 1W TOTAL: 392 men + 136 women + 8 riders (gender TBD) = 536

I just watched 92kg final and damn I can't believe this is Sadualev I was watching ! he almost lost to Sharifov. I know Sharifov is an Olympic champion himself but he is not that great anymore. when I saw the result I thought maybe Sadulaev didn't try hard intentionally to humiliate Sharifov because Sharifov is also from Dagestan same as Sadulaev but now I watched the match Sharifov almost had a takedown in last few seconds. Sadulaev was unstoppable back in 2015, he was still great in Rio but he is getting weaker since then, apparently marriage didn't work well for him I still believe he is the best wrestler in the world but he is not unbeatable anymore.

Bad news is bad, but uncertainty is worse. so I guess this is at least better than 3 months ago. we talk a lot about all these things in our daily life so I don't really enjoy to talk/write about politics here. but I believe hardliners in Iran slept much happier tonight, now they can rightfully say "see, we told you USA is untrustable" Rouhani had full support from the people for the deal but I'm afraid it will be hard to imagine such support for any kind of agreement with the USA in future. Rouhani is already a weak president, if he can't save the deal I'm afraid the turnout will be very low for the next election in Iran which means another stupid hardliner like Ahmadinejad in office and another dark eight years for Iran And this is funny they are blaming Iran for meddling in other country's business, the reason we have this corrupt regime in Iran right now is what USA did in Iran during the Mosaddegh time. they prevented a democratic change in Iran to keep their puppet dictator in power. Dictators are only bad when they are not friends with owner of the world, USA.

I noticed I didn't update this thread for a LONG LONG time. almost a year ago, from now I'm going to give weekly updates about important sport news about Iran. in next few months most news about Iran will be about the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. * Iran national Handball team has a new coach Zoran Kastratovic from Montenegro (also Macedonia) they had to change the coach after the disastrous Asian Championship in South Korea. they had high hopes to even win the gold but finished 5th instead and missed the World Championship once again, as I always say our handball never fails to disappoint ! Kastratovic will coach Iran at the Asian Games. it's not clear if we can have all of our foreign based players or not for that tournament. * Zlatko Kranjcar from Croatia is the new head coach of Iran U23 Football team. he didn't sign anything yet but that's a done deal. he was supposed to take this job 4 years ago for 2016 Olympics qualifier but the sport ministry rejected that idea because they claim he is usually "drunk" !! (Kranjcar was coaching Iranian clubs for a while) * Iran finished 2nd in second division of World Team Table Tennis Championship and promoted to the first division for the first time ever. After humiliating defeat to Kazakhstan in 1st round they just woke up and beat USA, Spain, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Ukraine before losing the final to Hungary 3-2. Noshad Alamian was the key player for Iran he also improved his World Ranking and is now #59 in the world. * During the Asian Mountain Bike Cycling Championship in the Philippines, Iran won two medals in Cross-Country events for the first time ever. Faraz Shokri won the men's silver and Faranak Partoazar won bronze in women's elite Cross-Country. if I'm not wrong Partoazar had won a bronze medal in a mixed relay CC team event before but if we don't consider that this bronze medal is the first ever medal for Iranian women in Asian Cycling Championship in senior level. * We will have the Iranian national team trials in Wrestling starting from tomorrow, this is most important wrestling competition in Iran and very important to determine the national team members for the Asian Games and the World Championship. but most of Iranian top wrestlers (2016 Olympic medalists) already withdrew from the competition for different reasons mostly injuries. last year Iran won only and only one medal in freestyle and the situation doesn't look any better this year specially in freestyle. * We are getting close to the Asian Games, the Iran NOC announced the list of sports for Iran to participate. this is a very long list Iran will participate in most of the sports . almost all of them except Badminton, Baseball (softball), Golf, Bridge, Hockey, Jet Ski, Paragliding, Modern Pentathlon, Rugby, Soft Tennis and Synchro Swimming. this is interesting that Iran is going to send athletes in Tennis ! Iran just relegated to the 3rd division of Davis Cup and Iranian players won't last even one round in the draw ! another interesting sport is Equestrian, apparently that lucky bronze at the AIMAG in Turkmenistan gave them a wrong idea about our level in this sport. and surprisingly Iran is going to send riders (male and female) to all 3 events ! I didn't even know we have Dressage and Eventing in Iran !

Results of the 2018 Asian Championships http://accasia.org/event/24th-asian-mountain-bike-championships for the first time Iran won two medals in Olympic events here, Silver in men's elite cross-country and bronze in women's elite cross-country. I thought this is a surprising result then I checked the World Ranking and surprisngly Iran is Rank 1 in Asia in both men's and women's elite !! so winning bronze and silver is not a surprise but how come ?! cross-country is quite new in Iran . is Asia this weak in CC ? btw, Faranak Partoazar's bronze medal in Women's CC is the first ever medal won by Iranian girls in an Asian Cycling Senior Championship. I consider this a big achievement because women's cycling is new in Iran and beside that Iranian girls are in disadvantage with those crazy dress codes. I believe winning medals in road and track events are much harder (almost impossible) with them.

again Russia lost the gold in last seconds. despite all rule changes, Russian wrestlers gassed again in last minute. well deserved gold for Aliyev.

WOW what a throw by Edisherashvili in last seconds to win the gold medal. always nice to see Russia losing in freestyle

Russia usually dominates the freestyle and this time they are the host. no surprise. and these new rules are strongly in favor of them. actually UWW made them because of Russia's influence. some other big wrestling nations are against them (I know Iran, USA and Japan). during the Asian Champs. all Asian countries sent a joint letter to UWW asking them to change the weight-in system because this is not good for health but of course they didn't give a shit. if you notice they still followed the one-day format for the Asian Championship. Russian wrestleres are technically great, everybody knows that, but they usually gas after 3-4 minutes. that's how you can beat them if you are not technically as good as them. now with this rule they have more time to recover in long tournaments. I believe in current Russian squad, they have very good chance (almost certain) to win the gold in the world at 61kg. 92kg. but 74kg. 125kg and 86kg are almost impossible for them. this year Asian countries will focus more on the Asian Games, good chance for Russia to make up for last year's poor results. I guess they will win 4-5 gold medals in World Championship only in freestyle. and the big question is. which weight the great Sadulaev will pick for Tokyo 2020 ! will he challenge Snyder for 97kg gold or he will cut weight back to challenge our Yazdani for 86kg gold ? of course I hope he picks Snyder to take revenge

Turkey has a history of buying Russian wrestlers and changing their names. I can name 4-5 right now. Bereket, Shahin, Yashar, both Erdogans, but I believe Demirtas is a true Turk !

I think Conyedo is OK. losing 5-4 to Odikadze in his first serious international competition is not a bad result. even though he is no Chamizo. speaking of Chamizo. he really impressed me by beating Tsabalov. not long ago he won a world medal at 57kg and now he is wrestling almost 20 kilograms up ! I would like to watch his matchup with Burroughs. life will be harder for Burroughs with this new weight-in system. while Chamizo has no problem in his new weight.

After such a bad start. losing to Kazakhstan and almost losing to USA. all of a sudden Iran changed gear and beat everybody to advance to the 1st division for the 1st time ever ! Noshad Alamian beat some good players on the way. he beat Kou Lei in last match to finish the job. PS: I think Iran even had a top 8 finish but that was long long time ago when Table tennis wasn't an Olympic sport.

2019 AFC Asian Cup draW A: B: C: D: E: F: there is no group of death but I believe group B and E are a bit tougher and then group F. even tough with 24 teams format all top teams will advance to the next round.

Some interesting matches for the 1st day of freestyle competition. 65kg will be very interesting with Aliyev, Khinchegashvili and Bekbulatov 97kg as well. with Baitsaev vs Conyevdo in 1st round. interesting to see Pavlo Oliinik representing Hungary ! Top half looks not that hard for the Caucasus bear Ketoev here is my prediction about the finals. 57; Uguev vs Edisherashvili 65; Aliyev vs Khinchegashvili 70; Kurbanaliev vs Gadzhiev 79, Shabanov vs Gadzhimagomedov 97, Ketoev vs Baitsaev

what the hell ! How could this happen in the middle of an international competition ？ this is great if they want to have peace but can't they just start from somewhere else ? and not with this stupid unified team idea in sports competition ? they can have their unified team when they merge their countries into ONE. not now. I also heard they want to have a unified team for the Asian Games later this year !

Vlasov is master in big throws like this, he was waiting for that chance and took it. but I'm not agree with the caution, Nemes was not passive at the time. I would give a second caution to Vlasov to be honest. not a robbery because it was a close decision which usually goes in favor of Russia.

Yep. new rule since 2018. because they want one day to "promote" the finalists for the 2nd day. we saw how they promote today by having such a great website.

my first day preview turned out to be no good btw I couldn't watch a single minute today. thanks to UWW website 60; The level looks low in this weight. no big name. bunch of new wrestlers. I expect another AZE-RUS final but everything is possible I watched that Emelin guy before. nothing special 67; we have Mukhtarov, Surkov and Daurov in top half, I go with Surkov of Russia, I see Bolkvadze as the main favorite in bottom half, can't see anybody close to him. maybe Turkey. 72; interesting match between Kurak and Korpasi in first round. probably will determine the top half finalist. bottom half also looks interesting with Chunayev and Cataraga. we also have Lomadze and Cojocari . pretty interesting level for a non-Olympic weight. 82; another interesting competition in a non-Olympic weight. so many good wrestlers in top half including the world champion Manukyan. we have Szabo, Abacharaev, Aleksandrov and the Turkish guy Kus. in bottom half I give more chance to Huseynov. but he has to beat Datunashvili in 2nd round. slim chance for Sasounovski. 97; no doubt Aleksanyan is my pick for the gold. we may have the world final replay in SF between Aleksanyan and Evloev. we also have the veteran Noumonvi but I don't think he can beat either any of these two guys.. bottom half looks more competitive. we have Ildem. Azizsir, the Georgian guy, Kajaia and even Nuriyev. we also have Balasz Kiss . he surprised me big time by winning bronze in the world last year.

Yeah we have par-terre but it's a bit different this time. only maximum two. one per period. which means only two passivity cautions per match, not necessarily one for each wrestler.

well hard to say. wrestling is a different sport with this new weight-in rules. I don't know how much these guys cut to make the weight, that's a big big factor. 55; I only know the Azeri guy Azizli. even the Russian guy is new for me ( a bit lazy to check their junior records) so I guess Azizli is my pick here 63, again I'm going with the Azeri guy Mammadov. even though he has Russia in 2nd round. we have Olympic medalist Berge from Norway on top half but I don't really consider him a great wrestler. he is just a tough guy. 77; the great Roman Vlasov is back. he has his dark horse Mursaliyev in top half but I think Vlasov will beat him this time. the bottom half will be between Lorincz and Nemes. Lorincz is good in par-terre (which is a new addition per new rules) Nemes has to be careful not getting a caution, Lorincz can score big if you give him the chance being on top. Nemes has a tough draw actually he has to beat Etlinger and then Kilov before even meeting Lorincz 87; I think the 1st round match between Abdesalam and Kobliashvili is the key match for the top half. the bottom half looks much tougher with both last year world medalists Kudla and Basar. the Russian guy. and also Lorincz. for whatever reason Kudla had full support of the referes in 2016 Olympics and 2017 worlds gifting him an Olympic bronze and world silver. he won medals by doing actually nothing. the world champion Basar is also not a great wrestler. he just took his chance last year. I believe Russia and Hungary will go to the final from the bottom half. The Egyptian guy Abdusalam is my pick for the gold. that's a bold prediction I know. 130; Kayaalp will win the gold 90%, I'm surprised Georgia didn't send their World Junior Champion Phartanidze. even though Kajaia is still favorite for making to the final and have the honor of losing to Kayaalp in the final. and thanks God. no Heiki Nabi after zillion years of watching him boring everybody to death and winning matches by doing NOTHING.

Yep. check the UWW website. only 8 wrestlers for 55kg !! maybe having that weight wasn't really a good idea. PS: UWW's new version is a bit hard to work with. not user friendly. I would like to have a PDF version

I thought this year we have a good chance to advance to the 1st division with two players around 70th in world ranking but then I looked at the rosters. Denmark, Ukraine, even Kazakhstan have players lower than 50th place. good luck in 2020 in second devision

UNITED STATES 12 ROMANIA 11 IRELAND 10 BULGARIA 9 POLAND 8 NORWAY 7 TUNISIA 6 AUSTRIA 5 MOLDOVA 4 SLOVAKIA 3 KAZAKHSTAN 2 ESTONIA 1 These were the votes of Iran. Thank you all!

ROMANIA 11 IRELAND 10 BULGARIA 9 POLAND 8 NORWAY 7 TUNISIA 6 AUSTRIA 5 MOLDOVA 4 SLOVAKIA 3 KAZAKHSTAN 2 ESTONIA 1