TEHRAN – Azade Sadat Moeini, head coach of Iran’s women’s wheelchair basketball team, has expressed satisfaction with her squad’s performance at the 2025 IWBF Asia Oceania Championships, recently held in Bangkok, Thailand.

Despite finishing sixth, Iran successfully secured qualification for the 2026 Asian Para Games in Nagoya.

In an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times, Moeini said that although the final ranking may not appear impressive on paper, the team achieved important goals.

“On paper, we didn’t achieve a favorable result, but considering that our team are composed of young players, our main aim was to test them. We managed to win several matches with convincing results using our younger players,” she said.

“We had not participated in any tournaments since the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, nor did we play any friendly matches. Moreover, the players who took part in Hangzhou mostly came in as substitutes in Thailand, where we prioritized giving playing time to debutants. Except for the loss to Cambodia, our team performed well in the other matches. Cambodia were unpredictable because, after Hangzhou, we had no footage of their games, so we couldn’t analyze them properly,” she explained.

“In the match against Thailand, we were defeated, but they have improved significantly in recent years and are currently a strong opponent. Of course, beating Thailand is not beyond our reach—we simply need more friendly matches, especially with such a young squad,” she added.

Moeini concluded by expressing hope for better preparation ahead of next year’s major event: “I hope that between now and the start of the 2026 Asian Para Games, we can prepare well. We need more warm-up matches, and we must upgrade our wheelchairs and equipment. I hope these issues will be resolved so we can achieve a strong performance in Nagoya.”