TEHRAN, YJC. Iran stood in fifth place in Incheon 2014 Asian Games in South Korea.
In 14th day of the games, Sajjad Ganjzadeh was reportedly defeated by poor and flagrant bias by referees and his Japanese rival in karate +85kg class semifinal, Mehr news agency reported on Saturday.
Ganjzadeh fought Japanese rival after two wins. Despite his brilliant fight, referees gave points to his Japanese opponent to send him to final; 6-9, to which Ganjzadeh reacted with anger, hitting his gloves to tatami, which gave the pretext for officials to eliminate him outright from the games.
In first match, he defeated his Chinese rival 7-1 and in the second, won UAE player Al-Mowla 11-4 to qualify for semifinals.
In women’s karate, Iran’s +50Kg. class player Nasrin Dousti won a bronze medal winning his Kyrgyz 6-1. This was Iran’s 17th bronze in Incheon. In first round, Dousti defeated Kang from North Korea with a crushing point difference, 10-0. In the second, she also won in a close game 4-3 Indonesian Souka. In semifinals, Dousti lost the game to Kazakhstan’s representative 0-4.
In Basketball’s final game, hosting South Korea won Iran in last moments of game when Iran was in lead 72-68. South Koreans change the game to 79-77, winning the gold. This was Iran’s first ever final in basketball. Iran always was in a tie with Korea up to last quarter, breaking the tie in some moments in the game. With 5 minutes in the clock, South Korea exploited the advantage of his fans, turning the tide for its interest.
In the number of medals, Iran’s record was poor, with fewer medals; however, in medal quality, Iran improved with a gold more compared to the last Asian Games in Guanzhou 2010. The games also was a place for women to set a record, with two gold medals won by 18-year-old Najmeh Khedmati in shooting and Hamideh Abbasali in karate.
Today is the last day of the games and any medals won by Iranians would not effectively change its position in the final ranking, and its fifth place would be assumed safely to be the final standing.