TEHRAN - Alireza Pakdel, president of the Iran Handball Federation, says that he is shocked by the news that Iran’s men's team may not be among the teams who represent the country in the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games.

Iran’s Supreme Headquarters of the Olympic and Paralympics, Asian Games, and Asian Para Games had an important meeting on May 13, to discuss- and decide- the country’s delegation to the Asian Games.

The headquarter officials decided to put Iran’s men's handball team on the waiting list although the handball team have a high chance of being among the top four teams at the Games.

“We were really shocked by the news,” said Pakdel in a press conference on Sunday. “Two or three weeks ago, it was announced at the Asian Games headquarters that the men's handball team would be sent to Hangzhou. However, two days ago, we heard the news that the handball team would be re-examined, and it shocked us!” added the president of the handball federation.

“We recently had a meeting with Manaf Hashemi, Secretary General of Iran's National Olympic Committee (NOC), and Veselin Vujovic, head coach of Iran's national team. In that meeting, Mr. Hashemi even motivated Veselin to get excellent results in the Asian Games and promised him a reward!

“Now we hear this team may not be sent to the Asian Games and it’s really shocking.

“In the headquarters’ meeting, I neither mentioned that we would not get medals nor said that we would definitely earn medals. I spoke based on the facts.

“In the previous edition of the Games, we finished fourth. Now, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran are fighting for the bronze medal and Bahrain and Qatar are fighting for the first and second place. We have a long way to reach these teams,” Pakdel added.

Iran National Olympic Committee’s policy is to send a delegation that owns more quality and less quantity. The officials are determined to select the sports in which their teams have a high chance of getting medals.

Hangzhou will be the third Chinese city to host the Asian Games, after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

Hangzhou was originally scheduled to stage the Asian Games last year only for the multi-sport event to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around 25,000 athletes and officials are expected to take part in the Games, which will be held from September 23 to October 8.