Injured 20 Days Before Competition, I Fought Through Pain; Nagoya Medal Is Result of Years of Effort

Iran's wushu national team member and Nagoya Asian Games gold medalist said: I was injured 20 days before the sanda competitions at the Asian Games and fought through the pain.

According to Ambassador Arjan Sohail Mousavi, the national wushu player of Iran and the gold medalist of Nagoya Asian Games, he said about the technical quality of the competitions: the level of the competitions was very high and all countries came to the competitions with their strong players. In these competitions, I fought against opponents from India, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, each of whom had valuable records at the Asian and world level.

He added: The Indian opponent was the champion of Asia and had a history of winning medals in world championships. The representative of South Korea also had the title of World Cup and World Championships in his record, and then I faced strong athletes from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and in the finals I played against the representative of Kazakhstan.

He added: My fight with Korean Sandakar was more difficult, but the fight with Kazakh was more important. The Kazakhs were our direct rivals in the table, and therefore the fight between me and the opponent was very important, and I am happy that I was able to help the Iranian caravan in the Asian Games by defeating this opponent.

Sandakar of the national team said about the refereeing conditions of the tournament: "From the first game, I was drawn to the hardest draw." The Chinese did not take risks to win Wushu golds in this period, and the refereeing was not very fair. If it was, we would have won more gold medals.

The medalist of the national team said that he would still have won the gold if his opponent was from China: I have been a fixer of the national team since 2017 and I have defeated the Chinese in international competitions. If the Chinese opponent was my opponent, I would have won gold again.

The gold medalist of Nagoya Asian Games stated about the conditions of holding these competitions: In general, the conditions of the competition were good and thank God everything went well. Maybe there were some points in some parts, but overall I was satisfied with the process.

Mousavi also stated about the problems and challenges before the competition: About 20 days before the start of the competition, I suffered a knee injury and the strain and tear of the meniscus created a difficult situation for me, but despite the pain and injury, I continued my training and this pain was with me throughout the competition. However, I tried to focus on my fight and finally managed to win the gold medal.

The Iranian wushu player also said about his mentality before participating in these competitions: winning this medal was not out of reach for me, because I tried to win the championship from the basic ranks. Since 2019 and participating in the junior team, I won the world gold medal, and in recent years, I participated in the Asian, World, World Cup qualifiers and various tournaments and won many medals.

He continued: All the hardships, training and efforts I had in these years were to reach this day. I always enter competitions with the mentality of a champion and I believe that success can be achieved with more effort. I went through many activities and activities that my peers do in order to be able to walk on the path of becoming a champion, and I thank God that these efforts ended in winning a gold medal.

Regarding his feelings after winning the gold medal, Mousavi said: The gold medal of the Asian Games is one of the most valuable sports honors for every athlete and I am happy that I was able to achieve this success. Above all, the happiness of my family, Iranian people, Ambassador Arjanan and even the children of the neighborhood was important to me, and being able to make their hearts happy made me happy.

In the end, the gold medalist of Nagoya Asian Games said: This medal is the result of years of effort, support of my family and efforts of my coaches, and I hope I can win more honors for my country in the future.