TEHRAN - Abolfazl Zandi and Arian Salimi secured two titles for Iran on the opening day of Kyorugi competition.

Iran won two of the three titles contested at the Paris 2026 World Taekwondo Grand Prix, held at the Palais des Sports Marcel Cerdan, in Levallois-Perret.

Zandi secured his first Grand Prix gold by defeating Korea’s Olympic champion Tae Joon Park in the men’s −58 kg final.

Following a closely contested opening round, Zandi established an advantage in the second that Park could not recover.

The Iranian reached the final after Spain’s Jesus Fraile Rodriguez withdrew following the first round of their semifinal. Park advanced with a 2–0 semifinal victory over Jordan’s Ja’afar Aldaoud, having beaten fellow Korean and −54 kg world champion Eun Su Seo in the quarterfinals.

Fraile Rodriguez and Aldaoud completed the podium with bronze medals.

Also, Salimi overcame Great Britain’s Caden Cunningham 2–1 in the men’s +80 kg final, repeating the outcome of their gold-medal encounter at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Cunningham won the opening round 14–9, but the reigning Olympic champion responded by taking the second 13–9. Salimi then secured the deciding round 11–7 to claim Iran’s second title of the day.

Salimi had defeated Egypt’s reigning −87 kg world champion Seif Eissa in the semifinals, ending Eissa’s bid for consecutive Grand Prix titles after his victory in Muju.

Cunningham advanced past Tunisia’s Motaz Ifaoui, who had eliminated Italy’s two-time world champion Simone Alessio earlier in the competition. Eissa and Ifaoui took bronze.