MHSN

from what I see most people on social media are furious on our own team for continuing the match and receiving the silver medal. people don't see them as "heroes" who got robbed but as cowards! but I just watched an interview with Iran's coach, when journalists asked him the same question, he said something like "we talked (with his boss) and finally decided to play because abandoning the match would hurt the sport of Kabaddi in general which we care about regardless of who wins the gold or silver" personally I think Kabaddi has the potential to develop outside of this region but not with current organization. they don't even have an active website nobody knows when is the next World Cup or the Asian Championship and the officiating is just bad (not necessarily biased, but just bad) and that Iran/India final debacle didn't help at all. in the heat of the moment I was hoping for them to refuse to continue but now after watching that interview I think they did the right thing, someone had to give up. but you expect more from the motherland of this sport to protect it.

and after more than an hour India finally got what what a disgrace, and that's what the English commentator said. when you invent a sport you want to develop , 1 gold medal more or less shouldn't matter much for you. and what a shame Iran continued the match, they had to leave the court

what a circus in men's Kabaddi final. the match is stopped for half an hour with only 1 minute left ! a clear sign of why this sport never develops.

OK, my GR preview wasn't that bad 57 we are sending a junior here out of desperation, while you can never underestimate an Iranian wrestler in freestyle but I don't think he stands a chance against Aman in the QF. the best Asian wrestler Higuchi is absent here but Japan is still sending a very good wrestler in Hasegawa who has a tough first round against Liu of China. I think either Aman or JPN will win the gold. in the top half we have a PRK guy and you know if they send someone you have to be worried. but I think MGL is the favorite for the silver medal with KAZ and KGZ next to him. 65 former World Champion Amouzad is the biggest name in the draw but he is facing a brutal draw! has to beat UZB, JPN and CHN to face Bajrang in the SF. Amouzad is a great wrestler but he is cutting weight and it will be a big challenge to wrestle fresh wrestlers back to back. (none of these guys wrestled in Belgrade but Amouzad did) I still think Amzouad can make it to the SF relatively easily but I'm not sure how much will be left in him to fight Bajrang. we have two big names in the top half, Tulga MGL and Kudiev of TJK (a very good Russian recruit). I believe these 4 guys will win the medals. hard to predict the order but I like to think Amzouad wins the gold 74 I don't see Emami losing the gold or at least not going to the final. he is the clear favorite but again he has to face some "fresh" wrestlers. I think KOR/KGZ/CHN and IND will battle for the bronze. in the bottom half we will have the Asian Champion Yessengali. Japan #2 Kinoshita, Bahrain's Asluev and Bekzad of UZB. hard to predict between these guys but the bottom half is certainly harder 86 we were always 99% sure about this gold medal because of Yazdani, he has some problems with his shoulder but I still think he can run over everybody in the World not named David Taylor. but he also got a very easy draw. I think MGL or CHN will win the bronze from that half. but top half is really unpredictable. Deepak Punia didn't wrestle in Belgrade to be fresh here, we also have two Russian wrestlers Sharipov (BRN) and Shapiev (UZB) (both finished 5th at the Worlds) but I think Daulatbekov is the favorite for the silver medal. also don't forget Shirai. he is good too 97 we have world champion Tazhudinov (BRN, against RUS) in the draw. so he is the favorite and his draw isn't bad at all. he is already in the final and I think CHN wlil take that bronze. our guy Goleij was 10 seconds away from beating the great Sadulaev two weeks ago but he got injured in the process. if he is fit he will make it to the final. but he has to beat Ibragimov first (38 yo but beat several Iranians before) and then MGL and later Yergali of KAZ. I think KAZ or UZB will take the bronze. I really want to see Goleij/Tazhudinov final. while this guy is fantastic but I still think Goleij can tire him down 125 we have the current World Champion AH Zare who is the clear favorite for the gold. I think he will face the big Mongolian in the final. CHN is entering a new guy and not Deng, which makes me think Batirmurzaev will take the 2nd bronze. (that guy from CAM is Iranian, he is not that bad, I know CAM is looking for a medal in these Games) in the top half I think the winner of IND/KGZ will take the bronze but there are 2-3 wrestlers in the same level

I think it's clear now that this will be our worst Asian Games since 2006 after winning something like ~20 golds and ~60 medals in past 3 editions we certainly can't repeat that this time. most of our "big sports" failed to repeat their results from past 3 editions, Greco wrestling was the last of them with winning only 2 gold medals, I was hoping/expecting 4 but one of them got pinned despite leading 7-0 and the other guy got robbed blatantly in 87kg final. Karate is in decline too, Taekwondo failed to win a gold for the first time ever. (even though I believe they did OK) our Boxing is fading completely. weightlifting could do better but having non-Olympic weights here (instead of Olympic weights) was a weird decision and hurt Iran's few chances. so it's just wrestling plus 1 gold medal here and there in other sports. personally I was expecting something like 17-18 gold medals and 60 medals in total but that's not going to happen. we lost lots of gold medals narrowly, also we have something like 25 fourth place finishes (or 5th place where we have joint bronze) I'm not hugely surprised though, we knew the situation here. less money, less medals but on the positive side, we are in a clear path to a surprising historical gold medal in Chess ! we also won first ever medal in Gymnastics and Women's Cycling. I hope freestyle wrestling delivers what's expected, (4 or 5 gold medals) at least we can have a happy ending

no he never retired, just had hard time since 2018 with injuries and other issues. he participated in some World Cups here and there scoring some falls and false starts. also missed lots of them because of visa issues (which is a sure thing when certain countries host) and lack of funding. apparently he clocked under 5 seconds in training so maybe he has a chance to qualify for Paris. it's still very tough with only few quotas available.

I'm too tired, have to wake up very early in the morning I think it's much more unpredictable. because some guys are tired after the Worlds (but we don't know how much tired) and some guys like your Bajrang is more fresh. we might see some big names falling here becase of that. and the officiating is always terrible at the Asian Games in favor of certain ...istan countries and one South something country but I write something short for the Greco for now 60 we have 3 World medalists (I mean this year WCh medalists) in the top half with world Champion Sharshenbekov as the clear favorite if he is in shape. I believe the Chinese guy is the biggest threat to him. in bottom half we have 4-5 good wrestlers including our former World Champion Dalkhani who is coming back from a long long injury, if he is fit he will go to the final but that's a big if, this is his first ever competition at 60kg. 67, almost all favorite are in the top half, we are sending a junior wrestler who wrestled in Belgrade at 72kg. that's a last minute change because they guy we wanted to send originally is facing some doping issues and Olympic Champion Geraei was dead tired after winning the bronze in Belgrade. if he beats PRK (which is always dangerous) he will face grandpa Ryu Han-su (twice World Champ) next. this weight is wide open with no clear favorite but I go with Shermakhanbet (KAZ) to win the whole thing. can't see a clear favorite in the bottom half. KGZ/UZB/IND and JPN all of them are capable of going to the final 77, Kim HW (Olympic champ 2012) is back for his last hurrah (I assume) and unfortunately he is facing our #2 in the first round. the winner of htis match most probably will get Liu (CHN)in the SF. I think World Champion Makhmudov is the clear favorite but he didn't look great in Belgrade and I know he is cutting a lot. he won't be unbeatable 87 we have a balanced draw, in top half we have our Alizadeh, KGZ, IND and CHN, Alizadeh won the Asian title few times but he was disappointing in Belgrade, I'm not sure if he can survive this draw. he will get tired easily if he faces IND/CHN wrestlers they are both tough. I thnk Berdimuratov (UZB) from the bottom half is the main favorite here 97, Hadi Saravi former World Champ couldn't ask for a harder draw ! he has to beat Assakalov and Dzhupbekov (his main rivals) to make it to the SF and then it will be KAZ. I believe the gold medalist will come from the top half but the bottom half is wide open, CHN is a bit favorite with KOR and IND and maybe JPN after him 130, World Champion Mirzazadeh has a clean path to the SF, I don't think the Kazakh guy there causes problems too. only the Chinese guy Meng can challenge him. top half is a bit harder with Kim (KOR, former world bronze medalist) and the other Kim from KGZ and Naveen.

they get tested for sure here like everybody else but I don't think anybody excepts them to test positive here. nowadays people rarely test positive "in competition" it's more about out of competition tests. I'm no doctor. people with more knowledge can explain better. but since 2019 nobody could enter PRK to test their athletes. so they came here without any doping test in past 4 years. of course they are clean now but who knows what they did in past few years. using drugs don't only help you in official competitions, they also help you tolerate heavy trainings. but while it's very hard, we still have to give them the benefit of the doubt. innocent until proven guilty

that's exactly what our TV commentator kept telling during the competition. "his opponents are falling because of him, it's not easy to race alongside him " if that's the case I don't know why it didn't work in any other tournament since 2018 AG

Reza Alipour was the defending Champion but since that day in 2018 he never won a race and lots of guys (specially from China and Indonesia) surpassed his World Record. I would gave him a very slim chance for bronze but he won the gold. it seems when you train hard, luck also comes your way it was the best moment of the Games for me so far (hard to pick between this and Table Tennis win over Japan)

Thanks and also congrats on your great performance overall specially in shooting he is not the most popular athlete here mostly because of what he did and said outside of his career but he is/was indeed our best ever athlete in this sport. it's always sad to see a great athlete like him retires with tears running down his face. I believe he never lost a competition in Asia until today

yeah 3rd North Korean girl to do so of course people have every right to doubt their cleanness . they probably had never been tested in past 4 years

our football managed to make history and lost to Hong Kong in the quarterfinal today they just assembled a team in last 10 days. lots of clubs didn't release their players. 3 players left the team a day ago because their club insisted on having them back. It just doesn't worth sending a football team to the AG (unless it's in July/August) yeah our football is a total disaster. only the senior team was/is good in Asian standards but I'm afraid that will disappear soon too in general we had some nice results like first ever medal in Gymnastics and MTB Cycling or two surprising heroic bronze medals in Table Tennis but it's not a good competition for our delegation so far. but of course we have to wait until the Wrestling competition.

quick question: how many vault specialists are left to fight for those 2 World Cup quotas. I'm talking about those who can score +14.600 consistently it was a tough decision, we had to decide between first ever Asian Games medal or a possible first ever Olympic quota

we are indeed participating and also won a silver today. the thing is our main guy (who was a World medalist in Judo but had to switch to Kurash since IJF killed our judo completely) failed a drug test, his late replacement apparently also failed a doping test too which left our team incomplete. btw this year each NOC is allowed to have only 3 male athletes in Kurash and we have only 2 for that reason

a 100m sprinter from North Korea with a PB of 9.90, is it serious ? https://info.hangzhou2022.cn/resAG2022-/pdf/AG2022-/ATH/AG2022-_ATH_C51B_ATHM100M--------------RND1--------.pdf

today we won 2 gold medals + 2-3 virtual gold medals I mean people think our athlete(s) deserved the gold but got robbed of it. and in one case I agree. but the highlight of the day which made it into social media wasn't any of those medals, Cycling is literally dead here and we sent only 1 male cyclist and that guy competed in Omnium today. nobody expected a medal and he was something like 10th before the last few laps of Points Race but managed to lap the group and added few more points. at the end the TV graphics surprisingly showed the Iranian in the bronze medal position and our TV commentator went crazy and even cried something like "guys I can't speak anymore" of course I quickly realized that was a mistake because he didn't score anything in the last sprint and they adjusted the result few minutes later !

any chance they release the "results books" at the end of the competition? they didn't do that so far for the sports like Rowing (already finished few days ago) I like to keep all results for myself and it seems this time I have to do it myself manually

This is first time we are leaving the Taekwondo competition at the Asian Games without a single gold medal. and not because our team was bad. mostly because we weren't supposed to. I'm watching Asian Games since 1998 and I know the officiating is always bad in certain sports (probably worst than any other sport competitions) but taekwondo this year was something special. the only good thing is today was the last day and I don't have to torture myself watching Taekwondo anymore.

hmm, I think Iran is doing OK in term of number of medals but only 1 gold so far doesn't look good. even though in first 3 days beside volleyball the only sport we had a legit chance to win gold was Taekwondo. specially today we had the current World Champion but she lost in the first round not the biggest surprise ever to me since I know our girls can't handle the pressure of being #1 favorite. we could win 2 more golds in the men's side but they both lost the finals narrowly. and our other medal-favorite girl lost because of weird electronic system which gave 20 extra points to the Chinese girl. I mean we are probably 1 gold less than expectations so far but that happens. you know wrestling is our big thing when it comes to the Asian Games but having World Championship only few days before the Games really ruined some of our chances. we still don't know the Asian Games squad and they are considering some changes. most of our top lighter weights wrestlers can't cut weight twice in a short period of time.

We had to wait for a team sport to give us the first gold medal that was nice winning gold in volleyball but this gold most probably will cost us the Olympic quota. now they have to fly half the world to Brazil and play their first match vs Germany in 2 or 3 days .

it wasn't just the final. we had two semifinals against China and in both of them some magic moments happened. the Chinese guy/girl just threw his/her leg to the air and 2+3+3+3+3+3 appeared on the scoreboard. refs removed some of them but still it wasn't a fair contest. there is something wrong and I seriously hope they fix it for the next days.

5 medals for Iran so far. all of them in women's events that's not something you would expect of course that's going to change soon, even today. but still worth mentioning

how come Running target events are in the program while the host country didn't even care to enter a team ?!

They were unbelievably bad, they ended up with just 1 bronze in a non-Olympic weight. half of them were unknown to me and those famous wrestlers also failed badly. their best chance Sargsian broke his hand in his first match against the eventual gold medalist from Cuba. some of their biggest names like Evloev and Vlasov didn't participate but I think in general they are just getting weak. we rarely even heard anything about their Greco team before the competition. it was all about freestyle.