Iranian weightlifter Saeid Alihosseini (+109kg) has announced that he’ll be retiring from the sport of weightlifting. This news comes quickly after Alihosseini learned that his hopes for competing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were coming to a close.
The news was first reported in an article published in the Tehran Times where they write, Iranian superheavyweight Saeid Alihosseini has announced his retirement from the sport after losing hope of competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
As of right now, Alihosseini has not shared anything publicly on his social media about his retirement.
This news comes a little over a month after we covered a story highlighting that Kianoush Rostami (96kg) and Saeid Alihosseini were left off the Iranian weightlifting team heading into the IWF’s 49th “Challenge 210” competition, a report first publicized by Weightlifting House.
The only Iranian athlete to compete at the 49th “Challenge 210” was Sohrab Moradi (102kg) who is currently in the process of rehabbing a back injury.
After the news about the 49th “Challenge 210” was announced, Alihosseini shared his feelings about being left off the roster in @weightlifting_me’s Instagram post below. The Instagram post’s description opens up with, “Ali Hosseini: Neither the federation is tender nor the head coach…”
In the world of weightlifting, this was and is big news because with the new Olympic Qualification System, athletes are required to compete at least once during the three six-month qualifying periods. The second qualifying period took place between May 2019 through October 2019, and since Alihosseini didn’t compete at the 2019 IWF World Championships and Rostami was unable to put together a total, then both of these athletes’ chances of competing within the second qualifying period were non-existent due to missing the deadline.
At the World Championships, Iran’s Ali Davoudi (+109kg ) who placed tenth, and Mohsen Dadrasasl (+109kg) who didn’t total competed in place of Alihosseini.
Again, as of now, Alihosseini has not shared anything publicly on his retirement, so we’re keeping a close on his social profiles for more details.
Feature image from @weightlifting_me Instagram page.