Suffering from controversial judging of the referee, the Iran men’s national basketball team conceded against China on Saturday at 2018 Asia Games.

In their second consecutive show at the final fixture of the Asian Games, the Iranian squad lost to the Chinese to let the rivals win the gold medal of the field for the eighth time. Their gold came at the expense of  Iranian basketball players losing their chance to win gold at the Asian Games for the first time.

The Iranian sportsmen were defeated by the Chinese squad 72-84, while they had led the first two quarters 45-41, in a match played in Indonesian capital city of Jakarta.

This is the second consecutive silver medal for the Iranian basketball players.

The Iranian squad put on a brilliant performance at the final showdown held in Jakarta on Saturday, defeating their South Korean rivals in three straight sets (25-17, 25-22, 25-21) to win the second gold medal of Asian Games volleyball contests.

The volleyball gold rounded up Iran’s medal tally to 20.

Defending champions Iran had handed Qatar its first loss of the 2018 Asian Games in the semi-final, defeating their rival team in three straight sets (25-23, 25-19, 25-18) to fight for the gold medal. The Iranian team had won against Pakistan, Mongolia and China in the three first games.

The 2018 Asian Games will come to an end on Sunday. With 20 gold medals, 20 silver, and 22 bronze, Iran is ranked 6th after China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.

Alamian suffered a 0-4 defeat to China’s Gaoyuan Lin, who has the world rank of 4, in the semifinal and achieved the bronze medal for Iran. The last medal of Iran in singles’ event of Asian Games goes back to 1966, where Houshang Bozorgzadeh won a bronze medal.

Alamian defeated Vietnam’s Anh Tu Nguyen 4-1 in the round of 32 before winning South Korea’s Young Sik Jeoung 4-3 in one of the most thrilling matches of round of 16. The Iranian athlete then proved his quality by gaining a 4-1 victory over Hong Kong’s Chun Ting Wong, who holds the world rank of 10.

In the other match of the semifinal, world No 1 player Fan Zhendong from China won South Korea’s Sangsu Lee to face his countryman in the final which will be held today at 5 PM, Jakarta’s local time.

2018 Asian Games is underway in Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang and will officially wrap up on September 2.

In men’s +105kg category, 2012 Olympics champion snatched the gold medal by lifting a total of 461 kg. Iran’s Saeid Alihosseini and Uzbekistan’s Rustam Djangabaev stood next with 456 and 455 kg respectively.

Salimi hoisted 208 in third attempt of snatch to top the ranking in this move. The world champion then conquered 237, 246 and 253 kg in clean and jerk to gain a total of 461 kg and reclaim his 2014 Incheon title.

“I put my all for this medal and God helped. Thanks God that I’m leaving [weightlifting career] with a gold medal. It’s been a long time that I was thinking about retirement since I had to provide more space for the youth,” said the 29-year-old champion after gaining the gold medal.

The other Iranian representative in this category, Alihosseini, lifted 208 in snatch and 248 in clean and jerk to win the silver medal.

Iran has earlier another gold in weightlifting by Sohrab Moradi who broke the world record in the event.

The 18th editions of Asian Games officially started on August 18 in Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang and will go through September 2.

On Monday, Iran’s Bahman Asgari defeated Saudi Arabia’s Raef Adel alturkistani 5-0 in the finals fixture of Men’s -75kg karate contests, and grabbed the gold medal of the karate contest. Asgari’s gold was Iran’s second gold in the 2018 Asian Games karate contests, the first having been collected by Sajad Ganjzadeh on Sunday.

Asgari advanced to the finals after three decisive victories against rivals from Afghanistan, Mongolia and Thailand. He tied the match against Chinese Taipei opponent in the semi-finals, but was declared winner by juries’ vote and was qualified for the final bout.

Speaking to MNA correspondent after the Monday’s victory, Asgari said his match against the Saudi opponent could have been a real challenge as Saudi Arabia had made a lot of progress in the field for years and they were after the gold medal.

“I made a lot of efforts to win gold and didn’t even take much of a breather during four years worth of training. I dedicate the medal to the Iranian people, and as of now I’m aiming for world contests,” he said.

Collecting a total of 15 gold, 14 silver and 13 bronze medals, Iran is currently ranked 4th in the medals table, after China, Japan and South Korea.

The 18th edition of Asian Games officially started on August 18 in Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang and will wrap up on September 2.

In the final match of Women’s -55kg category held at JCC Plenary Hall, the Iranian athlete was defeated by world champion Tzuyun Wen 0-4 and received the silver medal. Representatives from Indonesia and Macau collected the bronze medals of this category.

Khaksar overpowered Afghanistan’s Latifa Haidare 9-0 in the first step. Then, she overpowered Indonesia’s Cokorda Istri Agung and advanced to the semifinal. Proving her quality, Khaksar defeated China’s Jiamei Ding 5-1 to win the ticket to the final bout.

2018 Asian Games started on August 18 in Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang and will wrap up on September 2.

On Tuesday, Iranian taekwondo practitioner Saeid Rajabi fought Dmitriy Shokin from Uzbekistan in the final match of heavy weight taekwondo competitions at +80kg division as part of the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia. The two fighters were equal 1-1 at the end of the first two rounds but Rajabi came out victorious  2-1 in the nick of time.

The Iranian athlete had defeated Kazakh Ruslan Zhaparov 11-7 to reach the final showdown, after having defeated a Korean practitioner in his first match and a Chinese fighter to enter the semifinal stage.

With his medal, Iran has so far bagged 4 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals in the 2018 Asian Games which is currently underway in Indonesia.

The event will wrap up on 2 September. Iran is participating with 378 athletes.

Kimia Alizadeh has been selected by Iran’s National Olympic Committee to be Iran’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the 18th Asian Games, also known as Jakarta Palembang 2018, which will open on August 18.

The 19-year-old taekwondoka, Kimia Alizadeh made headlines at 2016 Rio Games by becoming the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal.

Some 15,000 athletes from 45 Asian countries will participate in the completions.