Iran’s Valipour, Bakhtiari grab world junior taekwondo golds
Amir Valipour and Amir-sina Bakhtiari carried Iran’s glorious campaign into the second day of the 2018 World Taekwondo Junior Championships in Tunisia, collecting two prestigious gold medals.
On Tuesday, Bakhtiari outmuscled his Argentine opponent Jose Luis Acuna 19-9 in the final to finish first in the men’s -55kg contests and take Iran’s tally to three golds in the competitions.
Bakhtiari had prevailed over athletes from Germany, Bahrain, Croatia, Azerbaijan and Russia en route to the final bout.
Additionally, Valipour, representing the country in the men’s -51kg weight class, beat his English, Egyptian, Italian, South Korean and Uzbek opponents before he overcame Khanoghlan Karimov of Azerbaijan by a 10-4 scoreline in the final to seal Iran’s first gold of the night.
On the first of the competitions, Iran’s Hossein lotfi had won all of his bouts by a 20-point advantage to win the men’s -45kg gold while Mobina Kalivand had bagged a bronze in the women’s -42kg contests after suffering a defeat at the hands of the Turkish participant in the semifinals.
The tournament has brought together 950 male and female athletes from 118 countries in the northeastern Tunisian town of Hammamet which comes to end today.