Equestrian Failure Before Reaching the Starting Line!

Examining the failed disciplines in Nagoya could offer a clearer picture of reality.

Ambassador Arjan: Iran's sports caravan ended its work in Nagoya with a total of 19 gold, 18 silver and 15 bronze medals, i.e. 52 medals, and placed sixth in the final table. Of course, this general statistic alone does not make the performance of all fields successful, nor does it prove the failure of all of them. For a real evaluation, one should look at the breakdown of the field, the number of dispatched people, the costs, the final ranks and the goals announced before the competition.

In general, the Iranian caravan was successful according to the existing conditions in the Asian Games, but this success, as always, was limited to only a few specific and repetitive disciplines such as wrestling, weightlifting, taekwondo, wushu, karate, etc., and the rest of the disciplines had no achievements except failure. It is not an exaggeration to claim that most of the Iranian convoys in Nagoya failed and did not meet expectations.

Nagoya was more than a surprise, it was a mirror in front of the federations where the gap between the claim and the reality of their performance was revealed once again.

A federation that talks about several golds and gets only one bronze, a federation that insists on sending a field but does not have a defensible output, a manager that talks about a historical achievement but its athlete is at the bottom of the table, or a structure that sends a team to the competition without adequate preparation, cannot simply remit to the future after the competition is over.

Nagoya should be the starting point of this reckoning, not a prelude to forgetting the failures until the day when the next caravan takes to the field again with the same promises. The country's sports caravan needs disciplines that have a plan and perspective to participate in continental competitions, rather than being just a name on the list of delegations and after the end of the competition, everything is postponed again to the promise of the next period.

Examining the failed courses in Nagoya will give us a clearer picture of the reality.

Failure before reaching the starting line

Iran's horse riding in Nagoya faced problems even before the start of the competition. Ali Aziznia, one of the riders who was mentioned as a chance for a medal, was unable to travel to Nagoya and participate in the games due to his horse's blood parasite issue, which also questioned the heavy costs of preparation and dispatch.

Next, Faezeh Gharavi, another representative of Iran, was disqualified due to capping his horse in the final and lost the opportunity to compete. Thus, Sawarkari could not meet the expectations and his appearance was met with failure.

In a discipline where the athlete's results are directly dependent on the horse's health, fitness and condition, veterinary controls, travel management and pre-race planning are vitally important. Therefore, the main question is not only about the events inside the field, but it should be checked if all the necessary controls were done before the trip and if it was possible to prevent problems?

When high dispatch costs are associated with such an exit, the federation is obliged to report on the details of the preparations and the reasons for these problems.