Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan’s national taekwondo team has claimed gold medal at the 2015 WTF World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships held in Mexico on December 8- 11.

The Azerbaijani team struggled against Iranian athletes in the final. On their way to the final, the Azerbaijani national team had overshadowed and overpowered the Korean national team, 48-30, while the Iranian national team had, in a tough but entertaining contest, dispatched the Russian national team, last year’s champions, 31-24.

The Iranian team, including Armin Hadipour Seighalani, Mohammad Kazemi, Abolfazl Yaghoubijouybari, World Champion Masoud Hajizavareh, and Saeid Rajabi in white uniforms, did battle with Azerbaijan in blue, which composed of Radik Isayev, Sina Bahrami, Aykhan Taghizade, Said Guliyev, Milad Beigi Harchegani and Mahammad Mammadov.

The match stared in tactical, stand-off style, before Azerbaijan seized a 3-1 lead, then gradually raised it, ending the round 8-6.

Round 2 started well for Azerbaijan, kicking off the Iranian fighter’s head guard. From then on, it was all downhill for Iran, unable to cope with the leg length and height of the Azerbaijani fighters, who were scoring with head shots from both long and close range. Despite some heroic play by the up-and-coming Iranian fighters, the team looked increasingly frustrated.

The round ended 29-11 in favor of Azerbaijan.

In the third round, things continued to go Azerbaijan’s way and the country ended the match 42-23 to Azerbaijan, a nation which has heavily invested in sports, including taekwondo in recent years.

After the final bell, Azerbaijan’s embracing and dancing players looked absolutely delighted to have delivered a return on that investment.

In a slew of special awards, Cote d’Ivoire won the Good Fighting Spirit award; the USA won the Active Participation award. Reza Mehmandoust of Azerbaijan won the Best Male Coach award, while Korean Kyo-sick Kim, who serves as the coach of the Chinese national female team, won the Best Female Coach award.

The male MVP honors went to Azerbaijan’s Milad Beigi Harchegani and China’s Shuyin Zheng was chosen as the female MVP.

Taekwondo is one of the most popular sports in Azerbaijan and the National Taekwondo School has a proud history of bringing up more than 500 black belt recipients and athletes.

In recent years, the national athletes delight their fans with great results, competing with Europe’s strongest rivals.

During the first European Games held in Baku this summer, four of the eight Azerbaijani taekwondo fighters were able to prove that they were the best among the 127 athletes from all over Europe who competed in the sport.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz