Iran send strong taekwondo team to Solidarity Games

Baku : An eight-strong team of taekwondo athletes will represent Iran at the Islamic Solidarity Games which will take place in Baku later this month.

The athletes for the fourth edition of the Games were selected by the Iran Taekwondo Federation, with Fariborz Askari selected to be the head coach for the team.

Leading the way, according to PressTV Iran, is Mehdi Es'haqi, who won the gold medal at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games. He will compete in the men’s under 54 kilogram event.

Ahmad Mohammadi will be among the other high profile names in the Iranian team, with the under 87kg athlete having earned wins at the Turkish and Ukrainian Open events last year.

Sadeq Dehqani and Mehdi Yousefi have also been named in the team, with the pair due to compete in the 58 and 63kg events.

They will be joined by under 68kg competitor Seyed Hossein Ehsani, 74kg athlete Seyed Ahmad Khosrofar and under 80kg fighter Alireza Darvishp. Hossein Ghorbanzadeh will represent Iran in the over 87kg event.

Iran have announced that they will send a delegation of over 300 to the Games, competing in 20 sports.

The Islamic Solidarity Games will be held in the Azerbaijan capital from May 12 to 22 with taekwondo on the programme from May 16-18.

A total of 57 countries from Islamic states around the world and 3,500 athletes are scheduled to compete.