Iran’s men’s basketball team started the Asian Games with an 81-57 win over the UAE in Group A on Tuesday.
Iran’s Navid Rezaeifar scored 19 points, while the UAE’s Qais Omar Ahmed Alshabebi earned 23 points.
Iran’s basketball team has won back-to-back silver medals in the previous editions. Iran will play Saudi Arabia on Thursday and meet Kazakhstan on Saturday.
A record high of nearly 12,500 athletes from 45 countries and territories compete across 40 sports in the 2022 Asian Games. Iran has sent 289 male and female athletes to the Games in 34 sports events.
Iran’s men’s 3x3 basketball team defeated Japan 22-13 in the 2022 Asian Games semifinals on Wednesday.
Iran will play Turkmenistan in Pool B on Thursday. The men's 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the Games is being held at the Deqing Geographic Information Park Basketball Court, Hangzhou, China from September 25 to October 1. The teams are restricted to under-23 players. A record high of nearly 12,500 athletes from 45 countries and territories compete across 40 sports in the 2022 Asian Games. Iran has sent 289 male and female athletes to the Games in 34 sports events. Meanwhile, Table tennis legend Ma Long says goodbye to Asian Games with gold Table tennis legend Ma Long said he had almost certainly made his last Asian Games appearance after helping hosts China to men's team gold in Hangzhou. The five-time Olympic champion had the perfect finale as his straight-games victory over South Korea's Park Gang-hyeon clinched gold for China, and the sixth Asian Games title of his storied career. The 34-year-old said afterwards that he would not be competing in the individual events in Hangzhou. "Being able to help the team together was for me a very good part of the mission here. Of course the competition is not over yet," said Ma, who has also won 12 world championship golds.
"There are still many matches my teammates will participate in.
"I hope that if they need my help I can accompany them as a training partner including some pre-match preparations.
"We still have other competitions ahead after the Asian Games. I will continue to maintain a certain amount of training, but it is different than before and this could well be my last edition of the Asian Games."
Asked about the prospect of defending his Olympic title in Paris next summer, Ma said: "Paris is still too early to say for me.
“I’m not thinking so far ahead yet.”