Iran's top discus thrower, Ehsan Haddadi, has won a gold medal at the 18th Asian Athletics Championships held in China.

The 24-year-old Iranian athlete earned the medal after he hurled the discus to 64.83 meters on the last day of the five-day event on Saturday.

This is Haddadi's third gold medal in the Asian Games. In 2005 he won the Asian Championships with a throw of 65.25 meters. In December 2006, he added another gold medal to his record, winning the title at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

Another Iranian discus thrower Mohammad Samimi earned the silver medal with 64.01 meters on the same day. China's Wu Tao stood in the third place to get the bronze medal with 59.27 meters.

Earlier, Sajjad Moradi had won the first gold medal of the event in Men's 800 meters on Friday. Hadi Sepehrzad took the silver medal in the decathlon and Iranian woman athlete Leila Rajabi seized the bronze medal in the shot put.

A total of 582 athletes from some 40 Asian countries participated in the 18th Asian Athletics Championships which was held from November 10-14 in the city of Guangzhou, China.

The host country China stood first place in the games with 47 medals, followed by Japan with 22.

HRF/MMA