Iranian wrestlers shine in Asian Games
Middle East powerhouse Iran won two more gold medals in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games wrestling competition on Monday.
Babak Ghorbani and Taleb Nematpour and topped their respective divisions to increase the Islamic Republic's gold production on the mat to four after two days of competition at the Huagong Gymnasium.
The 21-year-old Ghorbani defeated Kazakhstan's Asset Mambetov 3-1 in the men's Greco-Roman 96kg final.
South Korean An Chang-gun and Uzbekistan's David Saldadze shared the bronze medals after posting identical 3-0 victories over Jordan's Yahia Abutabeekh and Kyrgyzstan's Azamat Erkimbaev, respectively.
In the 84kg division final, the 26-year-old Nematpour downed Lee Se-yeol of South Korea 3-1.
Alkhazur Ozdiyev of Kazakhstan and Janarbek Kenjeev of Kyrgyzstan claimed the bronze. Ozdiyev defeated China's Ma Sanyi 3-1 while Kenjeev overpowered Indian Manoj Kumar 3-0 in the third-place play-offs.
Iran settled for a bronze in the 74kg division. Farshad Alizadeh Kalehkeshi defeated Uzbekistan's Azizbek Murodov 3-1 to add to his country's medal harvest. The other bronze was won by South Korean Park
Jin-sung, who also posted a 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan's Roman Melyoshin.
Kyrgyzstan's Daniyar Kobonov bagged the gold by beating Japan's Tsukasa Tsurumaki 3-0 in the final.
Omid Noroozi and Saeid Abdvali gave Iran its first two gold medals of the wrestling competition on Sunday. Noroozi topped the 60kg class while Abdvali ruled the 66kg division.
Iranian wrestlers will try to continue their impressive form when they see action in today's events.
Amir Aliakbari will feature in the Greco-Roman 120kg division while freestyle grapplers Ahmadi Zarinkolaei and Rahimi Hassan will see action in the 60kg and 55kg divisions, respectively.
The national wrestlers' triumphs pushed Iran's harvest to 12 golds to remain in the top five in the overall medal standings.
The Middle East giants earlier won three gold medals in the wushu sanshou competition. Mohsen Mohammad-Seifi topped the men's 60kg class; Hamidreza Gholipour ruled the men's 75kg category; while Khadijeh
Azadpour reigned supreme in the women's 60kg event.
Iranian athletes also produced three golds in taekwondo courtesy of Yousef Karami, Alireza Nasr-Azadani and Mohammad Bagheri-Motamed.
In non-combat sports, Mohsen Shadi Naghadeh topped the men's lightweight single sculls in rowing while Behdad Salimi ruled the men's over-105kg in weightlifting to emerge as the strongest man in Asia.
Iran has also won eight silvers and 15 bronze medals. The country is currently ranked behind China, South Korea and Japan in the medal standings.
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