Iran wins second Athen 2004 gold in Taekwondo

[Mani]

Iran's Hadi Saei Bonehkohal made up for the disappointment of four years ago when, as reigning world champion, he went home with a bronze medal.

This time he made no mistake, beating Taiwan's twice world champion Huang Chih Hsiung 6-3 despite losing two points.

The Iranian almost did not make the final after he was penalised 3 seconds from the end of his semi-final against Korea's Song Meong-seob.

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[Elliad]

Well done :) It's good to see countries other than Korea doing so well in Tae-kwon-do :)

[Soju Gorae]

I Agree. In order for TKD to globalize and expand more, we need other countries to consistently challenge South Korean dominance in this category.

Congrats to Hadi.

[persiantiger]

Iran and Korea are labled the "big 2" when it comes to tae kwon do. Korea used to be way ahead of us but we are catching up. I think we won the tae kwon do world cup for the first time in 2000 http://www.payvand.com/news/00/apr/1072.html we had finished 2nd the year b4 in 99 as well as some other years but I think 2000 was the first time. We finished 2nd in 2001 I think we won it 02 and finished 2nd in 03. France and Turkey are pretty good too as I have found out. I remember in busan for the asian games the iranians were saying the refs were biased towards korea and made them win when we deserved to be place first. Anyways congrats to hadi he got what he deserved he was unlucky to get bronze in sydney good to see him get the gold. HAHA that first picture reminds me of lui kang in mortal kombat 2.

[AmoebaCulture]

Korea no longer dominates TKD. ITs pretty much even worldwide

[woorijim]

Iran is a strong powerhouse in TKD, no doubt. That Iranian player was very impressive yesterday and he deserved a gold medal more than anyone!

Beware of Europeans though, they are dominant in heavy-weight TKD.

[Mani]

Iran is a world powerhouse in:
1. Wrestling
2. Weightlifting
3. Taekwondo
4. Karate
5. Kung Fu
6. Judo

Basically, we are good at any sport with some "ass kicking" involved :D

[AmoebaCulture]

1. Karate and Kung Fu arent Olympic events.
2. Weighlifting has nothing to do with "ass-kicking"
3. You guys didnt win any gold in Judo or Wrestling

So therefore, you guys are just good at TKD :)

[Mani]

1. Karate and Kung Fu arent Olympic events.
2. Weighlifting has nothing to do with "ass-kicking"
3. You guys didnt win any gold in Judo or Wrestling

So therefore, you guys are just good at TKD :)

Where do you get your info? We have 2 finalists in Wrestling today!

Wrestling is our national sport and we have won 7 Olympic golds in Wrestling overall! Iran is the defending world champion in men’s freestyle wrestling, having won 2002 and 2003 World Championships!!!

As for Judo, our team is ranked 3rd in the world after Japan and France ( Iran was third in the World champioships 2003 ) but we ran out of luck in Athen after our best Judoka the 2002-2004 world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili refused to compete against an Israeli rival...

P.S: Karate and Kung Fu may not be Olympic events but we are still world champions in both :)

Plz get your facts right!

----------------------------------------------------------

Iranian karatekas grab five medals (http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_3247.shtml)
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Iran lifts European kung fu toa trophy (http://www.payvand.com/news/02/apr/1028.html)
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Iran emerging as a powerful force in men's judo (http://www.ijf.org/corner/qStarView.php?Page=2&MenuCode=JS&Idx=77)

[riceburner3508]

I'm gonna have to say Mani won this round.

[Mani]

Iran's Yussef Karami just won a Bronze in Teakwando :D
With this Bronze, Iran team is officialy the men's Teakwando champion of Athen 2004 :cool:

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20040828/i/r4044686163.jpg

[Mani]

One of the reasons why Iranians are good in individual sports is becuase of an Iranian culture that promotes individualism and not team work.

The only team sports we are good at are soccer and vollyball and even our soccer and vollyball are good ONLY because of the players' individual ability and talent!

We must become good in team work in order to get anywhere in sports! :D

[Mani]

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Iran's Yossef Karami celebrates his bronze medal win in the men's under 80 kg taekwondo competition at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games (news - web sites), August 28, 2004. Steven Lopez of the U.S. won the taekwondo men's under 80kg gold medal at the Olympics on Saturday and Turkey's Bahri Tanrikulu took the silver. REUTERS