Iran completed its matches at the Men’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament with a 3-2 (25-23, 27-29, 21-25, 25-18, 15-8) win over Venezuela at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Sunday.

Mojtaba Mirzajanpour had a good all-around game and recorded 20 attacks and four of Iran’s nine total blocks. Milad Ebadipour also had a solid performance for Iran with 17 points. Venezuelan hitters Willner Rivas and Kervin Pinerua were impressive and contributed 21 and 15 points, respectively. Iran served 10 aces in the match.

 “Julio Velasco, the previous national team head coach, started the project to make it to the Olympics some eight years ago. There are two teams now in Iran and we are going to prepare for the next tournament (World League) starting on June 17,” Iran coach Raul Lozano told FIVB.com.  “All of our players do not play abroad, but young and strong players were chosen and great work has been done.”

Raul Lozano's men defeated Australia, Canada, Japan, China, Poland and Venezuela and lost to France.

Iran has been waiting to qualify for the Olympic Games for 52 years. That wait is now over. The Iran men’s team will be going to Rio for this year’s Olympic Games after qualifying in Tokyo on Saturday.