WANA (May 24) – Nahid Kiani, captain of Iran’s women’s national taekwondo team, secured the country’s fifth gold medal at the Asian Taekwondo Championships after a dominant victory over her Uzbek opponent.

 

On Sunday morning, Kiani — the silver medalist at the Paris Olympics and Iran’s representative in the women’s under-57kg category — defeated her Uzbek rival 2-0 in the final to claim the Asian title. Following her victory, she celebrated by taking a lap of honor with the Iranian flag.

 

Before Kiani’s triumph, Arin Salimi, Abolfazl Zandi, Mehdi Hajimousaei, and Amir Sina Bakhtiari had already earned four gold medals for Iran in the tournament, making Kiani’s medal the nation’s fifth gold of the competition.

 

On her path to the final, Kiani first defeated a taekwondo athlete from India, then overcame Jordan’s representative in the quarterfinals, and advanced past Chinese Taipei’s competitor in the semifinals.

 

Elsewhere in the competition, Yalda Valinejad, competing in the women’s under-62kg division, faced China’s decorated athlete Zhongxi Lu in the semifinals. In a closely contested and entertaining match, she narrowly lost 2-1 on round count and finished with a bronze medal.

 

Meanwhile, Amirreza Sadeghian, Iran’s representative in the men’s under-80kg category, was defeated by South Korea’s Geon Woo Seo in the semifinals. After a tight contest, Sadeghian lost the decisive third round in the closing seconds and settled for the bronze medal.