Iran wins third gold medal at Paris Olympics

Paris, IRNA – Iran's Arian Salimi won the gold in the men's taekwondo heavyweight (+80kg) category, bringing to three the number of gold medals the Iranian caravan has won at the Paris Olympics.

According to IRNA's correspondent, Salimi defeated Britain's Caden Cunningham after losing the first round but overpowered his opponent with unique techniques in the next two round to win the game on Saturday night.  

He qualified for the finals after winning against Carlos Sansores, the world's second-ranked from Mexico and Nikita Rafalovich an experienced and well-known national player of Uzbekistan.

Salimi’s victory came after 16 years waiting since the last time Hadi Saie, who is now the head of the Taekwondo Federation, had won the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Iranian Taekwondo team grabbed four medals with Mobina Nematzadeh winning the bronze in 49 kg followed by Nahid Kiani and Mehran Barkhordari each winning Silver in 57 kg and 80 kg categories, respectively.

Iran has also own two gold medals in wrestling and a total 10 medals in the Paris Olympics.