Emir Hamdan
Abolfazl Zandi beats Olympic champion Tae-Joon Park, Arian Salimi repeats his Paris 2024 final win over Caden Cunningham, and Lauren Williams takes the third gold on the opening day of the Paris Grand Prix.
Iran took two of the three gold medals on the opening day of the Paris 2026 World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series, with Abolfazl Zandi beating Olympic champion Tae-Joon Park at −58kg and Arian Salimi defeating Caden Cunningham in a repeat of their Paris 2024 Olympic final.
Great Britain's Lauren Williams won the women's +67kg title, leaving Iran with both men's golds at the Palais des Sports Marcel Cerdan in Levallois-Perret on Friday, 9 October.
Reigning −58kg world champion Abolfazl ZANDI took the final in two rounds against South Korea's Tae-Joon PARK, adding Paris Grand Prix gold to the world title he won in Wuxi last year.
Zandi reached the final with 2–0 wins over Niger's Nouridine Issaka GARBA in the quarter-final and Spain's Jesus Fraile RODRIGUEZ in the semi-final. Park also won his semi-final 2–0, against Jordan's Ja'Afar ALDAOUD, before settling for silver. Fraile and Aldaoud took bronze.
Olympic champion Arian SALIMI completed Iran's double with a 2–1 victory over Britain's Caden CUNNINGHAM in the men's +80kg final.
The pair had contested Olympic gold in Paris on 10 August 2024. Their Grand Prix final ended with the same winner and 2–1 score.
Salimi beat Egypt's Seif EISSA 2–0 in the semi-final. Cunningham advanced with a two-round win over Tunisia's Motaz IFAOUI, whose bronze-medal run included a 2–0 quarter-final victory over Italy's Simone ALESSIO. Eissa shared bronze with Ifaoui.
Lauren WILLIAMS gave Britain the women's +67kg title by beating China's Lei XU 2–0 in the final, completing a day that also brought Cunningham silver.
Williams had beaten Belgium's Sarah CHAÂRI 2–0 in the quarter-final before needing three rounds to get past Anastasiia KOSMYCHEVA in the semi-final. Xu likewise won her semi-final 2–1, against Hungary's Luana MARTON. Kosmycheva and Márton finished with bronze.
Competition continues on Saturday, 10 October, with women's −57kg and −67kg and men's −68kg. Follow the remaining Paris Grand Prix brackets and results on TAEKWONDO.TV.
