TEHRAN – Iranian Para taekwondo athletes won four gold medals at the 2023 World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Manchester, England.

The country’s four representatives secured their place at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

Maryam Abdollahpour seized a gold medal in the K44 Women -47kg by beating Peru’s Leonor Angelica Espinoza 15-5 to win the gold medal. Mexican Claudia Romero won the bronze.

In the K44 Men -70kg, Mahdi Pourrahnama defeated Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Alikulov 17-10 to seize the gold. Azerbaijan’s Imamaddin Khalilov earned the bronze.

Alireza Bakht defeated Jeonghun Joo from Korea 29-18 in the K44 Men -80kg. Asadbek Toshtemirov from Uzbekistan snatched the bronze medal.

Hamed Haghshenas also claimed a gold medal in the K44 Men +80kg. He beat Ivan Mikulic of Croatia 17-2 to win Iran’s fourth gold. Turkey’s Mehmet Sami Sarac won the bronze.

The Grand Prix is the last big event of the year for the athletes to gain qualification points for the Paris.

World Taekwondo has invited 128 athletes for the fourth and final event in the GP series of 2023 at the Manchester Regional Arena.

After Rome, Paris and Taiyuan, Manchester is the fourth and final stop on the Grand Prix series. It's the second time that the British city is hosting the Grand Prix Final since the inaugural edition exactly a decade ago.

The Grand Prix Final is the highest-ranked event outside the World Championships and will offer athletes a chance to earn crucial points to maximize their rankings ahead of the first allocation of Olympic quotas. Those are set to be awarded in January 2024.