Iran’s Khodabakhshi gets bronze in world karate championship

Iranian karate fighter Mahdi Khodabakhshi has clinched a bronze medal at the ninth edition of World Junior, Cadet & Under 21 Karate Championship in Indonesia, raising the country’s total medal count at the sporting event.

On Sunday, the 24-year-old Iranian emerged victorious with a result of 8-0 in his first contest against South Africa’s Pierre Scherman at the U21 kumite male minus 84-kilgram division at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition or ICE in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta.

He then downed his Dutch and Kazakh opponents in his march to the final competition, before losing 3-5 to Danish athlete Athanasios Koukouritakis and settling for the third-place fight.

Khodabakhshi defeated Ibrahim Nantumi from Saudi Arabia 2-1 in the bout, and won the bronze medal for Iran.

Young Iranian sportswoman Zohreh Barzegar downed a representative from Vietnam 2-0 in the last encounter of the female minus 55-kilogram U21 kumite division on Saturday, and clinched the gold medal.

Mi’ad Yari and Ali Asghar Asiabari also scooped up the bronze medal in the female minus 60-kilogram and minus 75-kilogram U21 sections respectively. Mahdi Ghararizadeh settled for the bronze in the junior kumite male minus 76-kilogram category.

The achievements came a day after Iran’s Amir Reza Mirzaei and Ali Meskini and Seyed Ali Karimi knocked out their rivals in the junior kumite male minus 61-kilogram and minus 55-kilogram sections, and stood on the bronze podium.

Additionally, Sara Bahmanyar and Seyed Ali Karimi were awarded a bronze medal respectively in the junior kumite female minus 48-kilogram and the cadet kumite male minus 57-kilogram classes.

On November 12, Iranian sportswoman Fatemeh Sadeghi conceded a 5-0 defeat to a determined athlete from Japan in the final competition of the female junior kata category, and collected a silver medal.

The ninth edition of World Junior, Cadet & Under 21 Karate Championship opened in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 12 and wrapped up on November 15.The tournament brought together 1,441 athletes from 91 countries.

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