Iranian athletes lift own medal tally to 13 at XXVI Kosanov Memorial

Iranian sportsmen have maintained their fine performances at the 27th edition of Gusman Kosanov Memorial in Kazakhstan, and earned four more medals to lift the Islamic Republic’s medal tally to 12 at the multinational sports event.

On Sunday, Iranian runner Behzad Mostafavi clocked 14:39.08 minutes in the finals of men’s 5000-meter run at the Central Stadium in the Kazakh city of Almaty, and collected the bronze medal.

In the men’s 800-meter finals, Moslem Niadoust set the time of 1:50.26 minutes and snatched the yellow metal. Mostafa Ebrahimi, another representative from Iran, finished in the second spot and struck the silver medal with 1:50.80 minutes.

Moreover, Sobhan Taherkhani took part in men's long jump competitions, and leapt 7 meters and 76 centimeters to receive the silver medal.

Earlier in the tournament, Iranian athletes had managed to collect nine medals, a third of them gold.

The 27th edition of Gusman Kosanov Memorial started in Almaty., Kazakhstan, on June 24 and finished the next day.

The tournament brought together tens of athletes from 13 countries, namely Afghanistan, Bahrain, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Gusman Kosanov was a Soviet athlete, who competed mainly in the 100 meters. He competed for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the 4 x 100 meter relay competitions, and won the silver medal with his teammates Leonid Bartenev, Yuriy Konovalov and Edvin Ozolin.

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