TEHRAN - Fatemeh Safarpour, head coach of Iran women's junior taekwondo team, appreciated the performance of Iranian girls in the 2022 World Taekwondo Junior Championships.More than 1,250 athletes from 90 countries plus a refugee team competed in Sofia, Bulgaria, during the World Championships.Sogand Shiri in the -42 kg and Mobina Nematzadeh in the 49kg women category won two gold medals for Iran.“The tournament was intense and at the highest possible level,” said Safarpour in her interview With Tehran Times.“After two years of COVID-19 pandemic, Bulgaria hosted the postponed tournament, and all the participating teams brought their best athletes.“We had less than 40 days of training camp, and we could prepare a good team to compete in the World Championships.“The World Taekwondo Junior Championships have 70 points for the gold medalist which is so valuable and influential in the athletes' ranking.

Because of that, all the teams came to the tournament with their best squad,” she added.“We had four representatives in the final matches and gained two golds and two silvers.

That was a fantastic result for our girls, and I'm delighted with their performance,” said Safarpour, who won the Best Coach Award in the female division of the 2016 World Taekwondo Junior Championships.Iran's Parnia Salmani claimed a silver medal in the women's -44kg.

She lost to Natkamon Wassana from Thailand in the final match.“We had counted a lot on Pouneh Jafar Salehi to take a medal, gold or silver, but she was not on her best day and somehow disappointed us,” added the coach.“Nevertheless, the fact that we reached second place, after the champions South Korea, among 90 countries, means that our performance was excellent.

It would help if you did not forget that Korea had a complete team in this tournament, but we did not have a representative in the women's 46kg and 52kg categories," Safarpour concluded.