Sitting Volleyball Player Alipour Lauds Morteza Mehrzad

The Iranian sitting volleyball team defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-1 (20-25, 30-28, 25-16, 25-14) on Friday in Paris in the final match of the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

Iran had earned three wins over Ukraine, Brazil and Germany in Pool B and then defeated Egypt to book their place in the final.

“Our team deserved to win this Paralympic gold medal. It was somewhat hard, but it was one of the most interesting matches,” said Alipour.

This was the fifth time that these two countries have met in the men’s Paralympic gold medal match, and while Bosnia and Herzegovina won the first set 22-25, Iran responded by winning the next three 30-28, 25-16, 25-14.

Morteza Mehrzad, who was also on Iran's Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 gold medal winning teams, was Iran’s top point scorer in the final.

“Morteza can be considered as one of the most important players in the world. He knows what to do, he’s the best spiker, and whenever possible he will be able to get points,” said Ali Pour.

“But it doesn’t mean that he’s going to do it all by himself. We have another player, Ramezan Salehi who is a good setter. He sets the ball for Morteza to spike,” he added.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has now won seven consecutive Paralympic men’s sitting volleyball medals, with silver in Paris being an improvement on their Tokyo 2020 bronze.

“It’s a sliver medal, but it’s like gold for us. We won the first set and nearly won the second, but I’ve said before that Iran is very good,” said Mirzet Duran.

“We are a very small country - about three million people - and we have seven Paralympic medals in only one sport.