Iran ended up in fifth place in the Asian Games last week, falling short of its goal of fourth place but performing impressively nonetheless.
Its medals included the gold in volleyball and the silver in basketball, proof that Iran is now showing prowess in team sports, contrary to its history of shining only in individual sports.
The volleyball gold was Iran’s first gold in that sport in the Asian Games. The only other volleyball medal it ever won in the Asian Games was a silver in 1958.
The basketball silver was a near-miss for gold. Iran was in the lead with 122 seconds left, but South Korea went into overdrive. Getting the lead by two points, the Koreans missed two foul shots with 12 seconds remaining. Iranian captain Nikkhah Bahrami tried a Hail Mary that would have won it for Iran by one point but missed the basket and the gold. South Korea—the host of these games—won 79-77.
In other team sports, both Iran’s men’s team and its women’s team won silvers in kabaddi, a contact sport that originated in India and has only recently become popular across Asia. India won both golds—as it always has—so Iran’s silvers were pseudo golds. And the Iranian men almost won, being defeated only by 27-25.
Of course, it should be no surprise that Iran did best in wrestling. In Greco-Roman, it won seven medals—one in every weight division except the lightest. In freestyle, it won a medal in five of the eight weight divisions.
In the last decade, Iranians have shown an interest—and a skill—in the martial arts of Far Eastern countries. And that showed up in the Asian Games. Iran won seven medals in taekwondo (Korean), five medals in karate (Japanese) and four in wushu (Chinese).
That accounts for 32 of Iran’s 57 medals. Another three medals came in boxing and two in weightlifting, two other sports that Iran has specialized in over the decades.
There was also a gold in discus for Ehsan Hadadi, long a strongman in that sport.
The remaining 19 medals were scattered across a number of sports, most of which have not been known for Iranian participation, let alone medaling: two in archery, one in women’s shot put, three in kayaking, two in canoeing, three in cycling, one in saber, four in rowing and two in shooting.
Of the 45 Asian teams, Iran finished in fifth place—both by the traditional system of ranking by gold medals and in the alternate system of ranking by total medals. China, of course, dominated the medal tables; it won more than a third (34%) of all the gold on offer. Here are the top eight teams listed in order by gold medals. The final column shows the rank by total medals.
G S B Tot
1 China 151 108 83 342 1
2 S. Korea 79 71 84 234 2
3 Japan 47 76 77 200 3
4 Kazakh. 28 23 33 84 4
5 IRAN 21 18 18 57 5T
6 Thailand 12 7 28 47 8
7 N. Korea 11 11 14 36 11T
8 India 11 9 37 57 5T