Iran taekwondo fighter earns bronze in Manchester contests

Iranian taekwondo practitioner Farzan Ashourzadeh has managed to grab a bronze medal in the 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series 3 in Britain to raise the country’s total medal count in the prestigious international sporting event.

On Saturday, the 18-year-old Iranian, who previously won a gold in the flyweight division at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea’s Incheon, received a bye in the first round of the men’s minus 58-kilogram contests at the Manchester Regional Arena.

He triumphed over his French opponent Dylan Chellamootoo 4-1, and Serbia’s Milos Gladovic 9-5 in his first two encounters as he marched toward the semi-final round.

Ashourzadeh faced Spanish contestant Jesús Tortosa Cabrera in the semi-final, where the 17-year-old Spaniard put on a stunning display, and constant warnings being issued by the center referee broke the Iranian taekwondo fighter’s concentration. The Iranian athlete finally lost the first round 3-0 to Tortosa. After the break, the young Iranian taekwondo fighter returned to action refreshed and regained in his composure. He wiped out the deficit and leveled the score at 4-4.

Ashourzadeh maintained his lead as the competition extended into the third round, and was 8-6 ahead until the last few seconds. Tortosa, however, did not relinquish and closed the gap before the center referee blew his whistle, and both contestants went into another breather.

At last, Tortosa reached the final competition, thanks to a golden-point win over the Iranian taekwondo practitioner.

On Friday, Iran’s Abolfazl Yaghoubi Jouybari snatched the silver medal in the minus 68-kilogram weight division after he conceded a 7-16 defeat to his 23-year-old South Korean opponent Lee Dae-hoon in the final encounter of the category.

Later in the day, Omid Amidi, who had defeated his German, British, Azerbaijai rivals in the men’s over 80-kilogram weight class, was downed by Uzbekistan’s Dmitry Shokin 9-5 in the semi-final to pick up the silver medal.

The 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series 3 opened in Manchester, Britain, on October 16, and will finish on October 18. The tournament has attracted 227 taekwondo practitioners from 56 countries across four male and four female Olympic weight categories.

The gold medal winners in each division at the 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series 3 will receive $5,000 in prize money, while the silver medalists will be awarded $3,000. The bronze medal winners will receive $1,000.

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