TEHRAN - Iranian Chef de Mission Hadi Rezaei predicts their Para athletes will win 28 medals in the pandemic-delayed Paralympics.

Iran will send 63 athletes to Tokyo and it will be the nation’s smallest team since sending 40 to Sydney 2000.

Since then, Iran sent 89 athletes to Athens 2004, 72 to Beijing 2008, 79 to London 2012 and 110 to Rio 2016.

Iran finished 15th in the medal table in 2016 with 24 medals after winning eight golds, nine silvers and seven bronzes.

“We will send 63 athletes to Tokyo and want to finish the Games in 10th place. According to our monitoring progress, our athletes are capable of winning 11 gold, 11 silver and six bronze medals in Tokyo,” Rezaei said in a press conference held in Iran’s NPC headquarters on Sunday.

“The gold medal winners will receive a cash prize of 10,000 euros, while the silver and bronze medal winners will be awarded 4,000 and 2,500 euros in cash, respectively,” he added.

About 4,400 competitors from more than 160 countries were set to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics before it was delayed by a year.