TEHRAN Reports from different sport events around the world say that Iranian athletes have been starring and grabbing medals.

The Iranian contestants bagged one gold and one silver on the second day of the World Under-23 and Youth Karate Championships.

According to Iran's Karate Federation, 61 countries have participated in the international tournament underway in the Peace and Friendship Hall of Athens, Greece, and Hossein Rouhani representing the country in the under-23 -60kg class defeated all rivals and snatched the gold medal.

In the first-round fight, Rouhani crushed his Cypriot opponent 7-0 and beat his Briton rival 2-1 in the second round.

The Iranian karateka managed to win the representative of France 3-2 in the third round and cruised into the semifinal.

He trounced his Venezuelan opponent 5-1 in the semi and rolled into the final during which Rouhani overcame the host country's player 5-4 and took the most coveted medal.

The French and Algerian contestants stood third jointly.

In -65kg, Mohammadreza Mohammadi, a member of Iran's youth national karate team, won four clashed and lost one to bag the silver.

Mohammadi defeated a player from Republic of Czech 7-3 in the first round, beat his Turkish rival 7-5 in the second round and cleared the representative of Croat 3-2 in the third round, storming into semifinal.

The Iranian participant booked a berth in final after defeating the Uzbek contestant 2-0 in the semifinal.

In the final, Mohammadi lost to his Italian opponent 4-3 and finished runner-up.

In another development, Iran's representative, Elshan Moradi, ranked second at Asian Under-16 Boys' Chess Championships which ended in the capital of Qatar, Doha, on Monday.

In the Swiss-style competitions that were held in 9 rounds, Moradi collected 7.5 points and finished runner-up.

The top title went to Philipov from Uzbekistan, who bagged 8 points.

Another Iranian chess player, Seyed Hamed Mousavian, took 6.5 points and ranked third.

Also, the team of East Azarbaijan Province representing Iran in Belgium's International Taekwondo Championships, ranked first.

In the competitions that 38 countries had participated, the Iranian team bagged three gold and one bronze medals to take the championship title.

In the first weight, Ja'far Ranjbarpour, Asghar Amir-Kafili fighting in the fourth-weight category, and Mahdi Navaei, the eight-weight contestant, managed to bag three golds and Afshin Saket finished third and took the bronze medal.

The tournament was held in Brussels in which 420 taekwondo players from 38 states had took part.