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The Pain I Experienced in Manchester was the Worst in my Life
Mahdi Khodabakhshi who started collecting ranking points for Rio 2016 later than other athletes is now on the first place of Olympic ranking in -80 kg with 80 points distance from the second person. It means that his direct Olympic quota is confirmed and he needs no more Olympic ranking points.
In spite of this, Mahdi did his best in GP, Manchester in order not to disappoint his fans and continued fighting after being injured in the semi-final match with the representative of England. The pain in his ankle, however, did not let him proceed to the final round and he had to content himself with a Bronze medal.
In his interview with Iran Taekwondo Federation, Mahdi says, ‘the pain I experienced in Manchester was the worst in my life. It was difficult to stand on my feet in those 2 rounds after my injury, let alone fighting, but as people in Iran were watching us live on TV I tolerated the unutterable pain and did not withdraw.’
His coach, Bijan Moghanlou, believes that Mahdi could win the semi-final match if the injury had not happened but the pain disturbed his concentration and did not let him show his best. He, however, thanks Mahdi for fighting to the last moment in spite of his pain. Moghanlou adds participation of Mahdi in Final GP depends on his physical condition.
Dr. Matourinejad, team doctor, explains, ‘after the semi-final match, we requested the organizing committee to take Mahdi to a hospital for treatment but they said the athlete needed to stay for doping test. So we had to wait and take him to the hospital by taxi after the event was over. Mahdi’s treatment started as soon as we reached Tehran and we will do our best to speed up his recovery so that he can participate in GP, Final in Mexico.’
Source: I.R. Iran TKD Federation
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