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The head coach of Iran, Gholamreza Mazandarani, will be hopeful that his team can defend the gold medal when the Asian Games 2023 begin on October 2.

Iran defeated India in the 2018 Asian Games semifinals, which surprised the kabaddi community, and proceeded on to win gold. In the history of the Asian Games, this was the very first time a team apart from India had won the gold medal in kabaddi.

Gholamreza claimed in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda that every player’s preparation towards the Asian Games has been thoroughly organised. He worried that any injury may entirely upset the team’s stability though.

“We also made a plan for the best positions for players for the best result. But we should see what happened in the Asian Games. Sometimes, the team’s coming very strong but some injury can change everything. Or some bad mistake during the match can change everything.”

Gholamreza emphasised once more the fact that Iranian team’s only goal is to hold onto the gold medal. He praised the group and the leadership, assuring everyone that they were in top shape for the competition.

He said, “We will focus on the gold medal again. We have good practice. We have a good team and good management now. We are coming in the best form.”

Iran played with a talented young squad earlier this year at the Asian Kabaddi Championship. Due to a shortage of time for friendly matches, Gholamreza Mazandarani, who was their head coach during the time, said that they selected a young group to test the players.

He said, “In the Asian Championship, we needed to test some new players because it was their first time with the national team. We didn’t have any chance for a friendly match because that time it was not possible for us. So we tried to check the new players in the Asian Championship.”