Tokyo Olympics 2020: Sajjad Ganjzadeh of Iran becomes the first gold medalist in +75kg men’s Kumite in Olympics

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Sajjad Ganjzadeh of Iran becomes the first gold medalist in +75kg men’s Kumite in Olympics

Sajjad Ganjzadeh

Sajjad Ganjzadeh won Iran’s first Gold medal in the men’s Kumite +75kg category after dominating his fellow opponents to victory, barring the final which was a bit bizarre. He won the Gold medal competing against 9 other competitors from 9 different nations. The events were held on the 7th of August, 2021 at the Nippon Budokan.

Sajjad Ganjzadeh beat Tareg Hamedi of Saudi Arabia in the finals, to win the coveted Gold. The fighter from the middle east was giving him troubles and, the final score read 4-0 in favour of Ganjzadeh, after he was knocked out by a kick from Hamedi that had him stretchered off, with Hamedi being disqualified from the contest.

Sajjad Ganjzadeh Tokyo Olympics
Sajjad Ganjzadeh lying knocked out in the final

Sajjad Ganjzadeh sees off Ugur Aktas in a tense semi-final, before being stretchered off in the final

Ganjzadeh had quite an easy outing in the group stages. He managed to win three of his 4 games, with one game ending in a draw. The Iranian finished first in Pool B with a total of 7 points. He then headed to the semi-finals where he faced Ugur Aktas, the favourite from Turkey. The close contest was decided by the judges’ decision after both scored 2 each. And finally, he beat Hamedi in the finals to clinch Gold, after the latter was disqualified.

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Hamedi, on the other hand, finished second in Pool B scoring 5 points in 4 games. He had drawn 1 and lost 1, while winning a total of 2 contests. In the semi-finals he took on Ryutaro Araga of Japan, and beat him 2-0, to advance to the finals. In the finals, he succumbed to Ganjzadeh.

Ryutaro Araga and Ugur Aktas settle for Bronze!

The Bronze medals were bagged by Ryutaro Araga of Japan and Ugur Aktas of Turkey. Araga finished first in his group with a total of 6 points. He won all three of his bouts. Aktas, on the other hand, finished second with a total of 4 points. He lost one match, against Araga.

Both Araga and Aktas lost their semifinal bouts to Hamedi and Ganjzadeh respectively and settled for Bronze.

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