Until the fifth day of competition, Iran had only claimed one silver medal. On the sixth day of the 27th World Taekwondo Championships, held on Wednesday, two Iranian taekwondo athletes competed, with Zandi earning a valuable gold medal.
Competing in the men’s 58kg division, Zandi defeated Adem Bilron of Kosovo, Vito Dell’Aquila of Italy, Jesus Rodriguez of Spain, Maksym Manenkov of Ukraine, and Qifen Hang of China to reach the final.
In the gold medal match, he faced Georgy Gurtsev of Russia and triumphed 2–0 in rounds, breaking Iran’s 10-year drought in men’s world championship golds.
In the women’s 62kg category, Kosar Esasah beat Antrina Achelios of Cyprus 2–0 but was later eliminated after a 2–1 loss to Chen of China.
On the final day, Iran will have two remaining fighters: Mobina Ne’matzadeh in the women’s 53kg division, which features 48 athletes, and Amir Sina Bakhtiari in the men’s 74kg category with 68 participants.
