Iranian swamps rivals to win crown

Ahmadreza Talebian of Iran paddles his way to victory in the men's kayak single 1,000m on Thursday. [Photo/China Daily]

GUANGZHOU - Iran clinched its first Asian Games flat water gold medal on Thursday and established itself as a new force in canoe and kayak sprints, breaking the traditional dominance of China, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Iranian Ahmadreza Talebian, 21, cruised to victory in the men's kayak 1,000m in 3 minutes and 34.256 seconds, an impressive four seconds ahead of silver medalist Pan Yao of China.

"Winning the gold medal today was quite easy for me because I trained hard," said Talebian, the 2009 Asian Championships winner, who took up the sport when he was 13. "The sport (kayak sprint) is mainly dominated by Europeans and as an Asian I want to break that (stranglehold)."

Iran also won a silver in the men's canoe 1,000m and a bronze in the men's kayak fours 1,000m. The team only managed to win one silver medal on flat water at the 2006 Doha Games.

The Iranians are coached by German Lothar Schafer, who used to train his country's women's canoe and kayak sprint teams.

"I am very happy with the young athletes' performances today. Some of them are only 19 or 21 now and they have got great potential," said Schafer. "We have a chance to win a medal in London at the 2012 Olympics if they continue to train hard. There are no short cuts in sport.

"Iranian athletes only used to be summoned to training sessions three or four months before major tournaments like the Asian Games," said Schafer. "Now they train every day and that's why they have made such great improvements in such a short time."

To encourage more athletes to win gold, Iran doubled its cash bonus for Guangzhou Asian Games gold medalists from $40,000 to $80,000. The average income of an Iranian is about $1,000 a month.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government has promised every gold-medal winner a house as a reward for their hard work.

"Money is not the reason why we want to be the top athletes, but a fat bonus will make the athletes more motivated in training and encourage more people to join sports, which will definitely help Iranian sports in the future," Talebian said.

Uzbekistan was the most successful team on Thursday, winning three of the six gold medals on offer. World champion Vadim Menkov extracted the most out of his strokes to win the 1,000m canoe singles.

The Uzbeks also clinched gold in the men's 1,000m doubles and 1,000m men's kayak fours.

China, which won seven gold on flat water in Doha, only managed to capture two gold medals - in the men's kayak 1,000m doubles and the women's kayak fours 500m on the first day of the finals.

"Most of our Doha Asian Games champions retired after the Beijing Olympics, so we have a very young team which lacks training and experience," said Marek Plooch, coach of China's canoe and kayak sprint teams. "So people need to be patient to see good results from the team."