Jordan’s Sharabaty gets gold medal at president’s cup

AMMAN — Jordan’s golden taekwondo run in 2019 has continued after Saleh Al Sharabaty clinched the -80kg crown at the World Taekwondo President’s Cup (Asian region) held on the Iranian island of Kish on Friday, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service. 

The national team fighter has been in exceptional form this year, and followed up his gold last week in Egypt with more superb performances to take another to further boost his Olympic ranking.

Sharabaty launched his campaign by defeating Uzbekistan’s Shakhar Salif, 9-8, before facing Iran’s Mohammadi Nazimi in the semifinal and beating him 13-8. In the final, he beat another Iranian, Mehran Barjordari, 4-2. Hamza Qattan is another fighter in form, and he won bronze in the +87kg heavyweight division.

After qualifying through to the semifinal by beating Uzbek, Rajukov, 8-4, he lost to Iran’s Saeed Rajabi, 9-5, for the bronze. He was also successful in Egypt last week, winning a silver medal.

Their medals join an earlier gold won by Anas Al Sadiq in the -87kg weight to ensure Jordan finished with two gold and a bronze, enough to land the runner-up overall to Iran, with Korea in third.