[caption id="attachment_129996" align="alignright" width="186"] Iranian beach wrestler, Mohammad Naderi[/caption]
Iranian athletes have put on an awe-inspiring display of strength and athletic versatility at the fourth edition of the Asian Beach Games in Thailand, bringing home two gold medals.
On Saturday, Irans Mohammad Naderi overwhelmed Qatars Russian-born sportsman, Abdullrahman Ibrahim, 2-0 in the final encounter of the mens freestyle minus-70-kilogram weight category at Patong Cluster in Phuket Island, and claimed a beach wrestling gold medal.
The Iranian wrestler had earlier defeated South Korean representative, Seongun Park, Azbileg Tsengelbayar from Mongolia, Bangladeshi opponent, Md Dipu, and Kazakh rival, Nurlan Bekzhanov, in his march to the final.
Later in the day, Ghanbar Ali Ghanbari pocketed another gold for Iran, after beating Hao Cheng Chan from Chinese Taipei 4-1 in the final beach kurash competition of the mens minus 66-kiloram class at Patong Cluster.
The Iranian sportsman had already downed Indias Nilesh Balhara, Tajik kurash practitioner, Bakhodur Khalimov, and Muhammet Artykov from Turkmenistan.
The fourth edition of the Asian Beach Games opened in Thailands largest island of Phuket on November 14, and will conclude on November 23. The tournament has brought together more than 3,500 athletes and officials from 45 Asian countries.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has dispatched a delegation of 85 athletes to the sporting event. The Iranians are competing in 17 out of 26 sports during the tournament.
Iran ranks sixth in the 2014 Asian Beach Games, having collected two gold, five silver and three bronze medals.
Mongolia tops the medal count table with a total of 8 medals (6 golds and 2 bronzes), Thailand stands second with 20 medals (5 gold medals, 6 silvers and 9 bronzes). The United Arab Emirates, Japan and Kazakhstan are in the third to fifth spots.