Iranian wushu practitioners have demonstrated a commendable combination of might and thought at the ninth edition of International Wushu Tournament in Georgia, and snatched thirty-eight medals, including 15 gold ones, at the high-status event.

Iran’s Aydin Nazari received three gold medals after putting on stellar and brilliant performances at the Shaolin Chuan Fa form of Taolu competitions of the two-day-long tournament in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi.

Esmaeil Hadipour, Mehrdad Mebrabpour Zakari, Ehsan Sharouei and Rouzbeh Rashedi also snatched a gold medal each in the same form of Taolu.

Mohammad Ja’fari Haradi, Mebrabpour Zakari, Reza Goushehei, Rashedi and Reza Babakhani also scooped seven silver medals in Shaolin Chuan Fa form of Taolu contests. Ja’fari Haradi and Babakhani were awarded two silver medals each.

Additionally, Goushehei, Amir Hossein Tayyebi, Ali Asghar Ahmadi, Amir Reza Gourkani, Mahan Hassanzadeh, Yasin Khosrawi and Ali Ahmadi stood on the third-place podium and earned a bronze medal each.

Shaolin Chuan Fa (meaning Shaolin’s fighting arts), sometimes known by its original name Luohan quan, is a comprehensive system that deals with using body positioning and long-range techniques to use the opponent’s strength against him.

Luohan quan’s long-range kicking techniques and short-range self-defense movements make the system graceful and unpredictable.

The self-defense techniques are fast, strong, evasive, multi-directional, non-direct, effective, deceptive, and efficient while still being non-confrontational in nature.

Separately, Seyed Reza Alavinejad, Alireza Gholamian, Kamran Shamsipour, Mojtaba Sarabeigi, Sina Maleki, Baqer Nikkhah, Behrouz Salari and Abdolrahim Shayezadeh garnered eight more gold medals for Iran at the end of Sanda competitions.

Moslem Khanfari, Seyed Payman Kakavand, Shahab Rastin, Amin Arabzadeh and Mehdi Mahdavi claimed the second spot with five silver medals.

Armin Azimi, Mohammad Reza Ramezani, Mojtaba Sadeqi and Maysam Shabani also occupied the third place at the end of Sanda contests, and added four bronze medals to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s medal tally.

Sanda (sometimes called Sanshou or Lei tai) has all the combat aspects of wushu, but includes many more grappling techniques.

The ninth edition of International Wushu Tournament opened in Tbilisi, Georgia, on June 26, and finished the following day.

The tournament brought together dozens of wushu practitioners from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Russia, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Ukraine.