Sports · updated 3h ago · 2 min read
Saghar Moradi Advances To Semifinals After Iran’s Taekwondo Eliminations At Nagoya 2026
Moradi advanced to the women's 67kg taekwondo semifinals, guaranteeing Iran a bronze medal. Iran's taekwondo campaign had three early eliminations, with Moradi as the sole medal contender remaining.
11 outlets told this the same way.
7 of 8 outlets skipped it: malaysia’s Adeola won first gold by defeating Saeidabadi 6-4.
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Moradi advances, Iran medals
Iran’s taekwondo campaign at the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games opened with three early eliminations in kyorugi on Friday, while Saghar Moradi advanced to the semifinals to guarantee at least a bronze medal. Moradi, competing in the women’s -67kg division, received a bye in the first round, then beat Kyrgyzstan’s Tamiris in the quarterfinals with scores of 9-1 and 13-1 to secure her semifinal berth. Moradi’s semifinal placement set up a final push against the winner of the matchup between China and Chinese Taipei.
In the men’s -58kg division, Abolfazl Zandi was eliminated in the round of 16 against Kazakhstan’s Temirlan, losing in straight rounds (11-2, 16-11), after an earlier win over his Tajik opponent. In the men’s -80kg category, Amir Sina Bakhtiari bowed out in his opening contest, losing 2-0 (5-4, 2-0) to China’s Xiang.
Virtual Taekwondo debuts
Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape won the first Taekwondo gold for the Philippines at the Asian Games, and he also won medals in Poomsae and Virtual in the same edition alongside Singaporean Darren Yap. The Asian Games taekwondo program at Aichi-Nagoya 2026 completed on Friday, October 2, with five titles in the Toyohashi Gymnasium, Japan, including the debut of Virtual Taekwondo. The Virtual debut gathered 16 athletes, and the participants wore a virtual reality headset and five motion sensors to compete in non-contact bouts.
Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape defeated 2-0 the Vietnamese representative, Chau Ngoc Tuyet Sang, in the mixed team final of Virtual Taekwondo. The competition format played best of three rounds of 60 seconds, and each round required depleting the opponent’s virtual health bar or keeping more health at the end of the time.
Moradi takes gold, Iran 15th
Saghar Moradi then secured the top result for Iran by defeating Uzbekistan’s Ozoda Sobirjonova 2-0 in the women’s 67kg taekwondo kyorugi event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
The final was held at the Toyohashi General Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, and Wang Wei-chia of Chinese Taipei and South Korea’s Kwak Min-ju won two bronze medals.
Mehr News Agency described the win as Moradi bagging the 15th gold medal for Iran in the 2026 Asian Games hosted by Japan.
Tehran Times also reported Moradi’s 2-0 victory over Ozoda Sobirjonova and said Wang Wei-chia and Kwak Min-ju took two bronze medals.
The same reporting placed the taekwondo competition at the 2026 Asian Games from Oct. 1 to 3 at Toyohashi City General Gymnasium.