Iranian wushu practitioner Mojtaba Hosseinzadeh has clinched a gold medal at the second SportAccord World Combat Games in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.
The 28-year-old athlete demonstrated a brilliant performance on Friday and overcame his Russian opponent Gadzhi Nuritdinov in the mens minus 75-kg Sanda (sparring) discipline.
The 31-year-old Venezuelan sportsman Jesus Rafael Licet snatched the bronze medal on the same day.
On Saturdays finals, 23-year-old Iranian wushu artist Jafar Shirzadeh Topraghlou will face Dylan Sakho from France in the mens minus 65-kg Sanda section, Hamid Reza Ladvar will fight against 20-year-old Egyptian fighter Aly Mohamed Ahmed Aly Ibrahim in the mens minus 85-kg Sanda class, and 26-year-old Arman Baziari will take on Mohamed Youssef from Russia in the mens minus 90-kg Sanda category.
Sanda (sometimes called Sanshou or Lei tai) has all the combat aspects of wushu, but includes many more grappling techniques.
The second SportAccord World Combat Games opened in Saint Petersburg on October 18, and will wrap up on October 26.
Fifteen Olympic and non-Olympic games are currently on the program: aikido, boxing, fencing, judo, ju-jitsu, karate, kendo, kickboxing, Muay Thai, sambo, savate, sumo, taekwondo, wrestling, and wushu.
Thirty-two athletes are representing Iran in the competitions. A total of 1,500 athletes from 120 countries are in action across the 15 events.
Iranian sportsmen and sportswomen are competing in karate, kickboxing, Muay Thai, sambo, savate, taekwondo, wrestling and wushu.
The World Combat Games, first held in Beijing in 2010, were initiated by SportAccord, the umbrella organization for both Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations.