Iranian athletes book tickets for 2016 Summer Olympic Games

Iranian sportsmen and women have exhibited awe-inspiring displays of talent at the 2015 edition of the international track and field tournament in memory of the Soviet athlete Gusman Kosanov, and secured places in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

On Saturday, Iran’s 22-year-old sprinter Hassan Taftian and Reza Ghasemi, 28, clocked 10.10 and 10.12 seconds respectively in the tournament’s prestigious 100-meter race at the Almaty Central Stadium, Kazakhstan, to land in the first and second positions.

Later in the day, Iranian female shot putter Leila Rajabi won an Olympic berth for the Islamic Republic with a winning throw of 18.04 meters.

The International Meeting G. Kosanov Memorial runs on July 25-26 in the Kazakh city of Almaty, and has brought together 300 athletes from 11 nations, including Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia.

Iran’s delegation in the tournament comprises of Reza Ghasemi, Hassan Taftian, Sajjad Hashemi Ahangari, Mehdi Zamani, Keivan Ghanbarzadeh, Mohammadreza Vazifehdoust, Vahid Seddigh, Ahmad Foroud, Leila Rajabi, Elnaz Company, and Mohammad Hossein Abareghi.

Soviet sportsman Gusman Kosanov, born on May 25, 1935, competed mainly in 100-meter races. He represented the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, where he won the 4x100 meter relay silver medal with his team mates Leonid Bartenev, Yuriy Konovalov and Edvin Ozolin. Kosanov died on July 19, 1990, aged 55.

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