With the top Olympic medalist of the field, Hadi Saei, being from Iran, Taekwondo is a martial art of interest for Iranians as the nation is looking for medals at the upcoming event of Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Kimia Alizadeh (women's -57kg), Farzan Ashourzadeh (men's -58kg), Mehdi Khodabakhshi (men's -80 kg), and Sajjad Mardani (men's +80 kg) are named in Iran’s four-athlete taekwondo squad for Rio 2016
Twenty-nine days to the start of the competitions, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) announced the allocations of the Taekwondo competitions in the Aug. 5-21 Games of Rio Olympics. The martial art will be contested in four days in August 17-20 at the venue of Rio de Janeiro’s Carioca Arena 3 which has been built for the Rio 2016 Games to host the taekwondo and fencing competitions.
Iran’s 17-year-old Kimia Alizadeh, who had previously defeated London 2012 crown of her weight category, the British Jade Jones, and has the title of the women's -63 kg at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, is pitted against Ana Zaninovic of Croatia in the category of the flyweight division (125 lb or 57 kg and below) in Rio.
Croatian 29-year-old taekwondo practitioner, Ana Zaninović, won the silver medal in the women's flyweight class at the 2007 World Taekwondo Championships in Beijing, the gold medal in the women's bantamweight class at the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships in Gyeongju, he bronze medal in the women's 57 kg class at the 2011 World Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Baku, and the silver medal in the women's bantamweight class at the 2012 European Taekwondo Championships in Manchester.
With a total of four World Championship medals, one gold, two silver and a bronze, two European Championships medals of gold and silver, and a silver medal of European Games, she is serious challenge for the Iranian athlete at the first step of her Olympic debut in Rio.
Raheleh Asemani of Belgium who is originally an Iranian is also in the same division with Alizadeh. Asemani has to encounter the US-born 20-year-old Carolena Jean Carstens Salceda of Panama at her first competition in Rio.
Iran’s Ashourzadeh is bracketed with Omar Hajjami of Morocco in his first staging on the mat. If successful at his first fight, he has to stand against the winner of the game between Spain’s Jesús Tortosa and China’s Zhao Shuai.
Ranked 1st in the welterweight division (between 74 and 80 kg), Iranian 25-year-old taekwondo practitioner, Mahdi Khodabakhshi, has to fight Miguel Ferrera of Honduras.
Iran’s heavy-weight taekwondo practitioner Sajjad Mardani, who won the silver medal in the men's heavyweight class at the 2013 World Taekwondo Championships held in Puebla of Mexico, is drawn to fight against Pita Taufatofua of Tonga at the first contest of his race for Olympic gold.
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