TEHRAN – Babak Mohammadi, head of Iran's Para Powerlifting Association, announces the women's and men's team will compete at the Algeria Open competition for the second step of qualifying for the LA 2028 Paralympics.

“The men's and women's para powerlifting team was originally scheduled to depart on April 4 for Thailand to take part in the second step of LA 2028 Paralympic qualification and ranking improvement, but that trip was canceled due to war conditions. With the support of the Federation and the National Paralympic Committee of Iran, the Algeria Open has been selected as a replacement for that tournament,” Mohammadi said.

“We will send four female and 13 male athletes. In addition to participating in the second step of Paralympic qualification for Los Angeles, we will also aim to improve our powerlifters' rankings for the Nagoya 2026 Asian Para Games in Japan,” he added.

“We have previously secured three quotas for women for the Nagoya Asian Para Games. I hope that in Algeria we can increase the number of women's quotas for Nagoya. At the World Championships in Egypt — which was the first step of LA 2028 qualification — our women put in a strong performance. In Algeria, we hope to turn their bronze medals into gold, although our goal in the Algeria tournament is not to win medals but rather to increase the ranking of both our women's and men's powerlifters, so we can improve our quota numbers,” Regarding the women's situation for the Algeria competition, the head of the Para Powerlifting Association stated.