Morteza Abedi scored 25 points in Suphan Buri on 11 June, and by the final whistle Iran had done what the last-chance qualifier demanded. Iran beat Poland 81-59 on the closing day of the 2026 IWBF Men's Repechage, and with it secured a place at the World Championship in Ottawa. Abedi was the top scorer on the floor. The margin left no argument.
The last day in Suphan Buri
The tournament was built as a final door. Seven nations gathered at the Suphan Buri Indoor Stadium for the 2026 IWBF Men's Repechage, competing for the remaining tickets to the World Championship in Ottawa. Iran arrived in Group B with Senegal, Brazil and Poland. There was no cushion. Group winners advanced.
Iran cleared the group without a stumble. They opened by dispatching Senegal 77-24, a result that set the tone through sheer separation. Then came the harder night. Iran beat Brazil 75-63, with Mahdi Abbasi scoring 31, and the win moved them within reach of qualification. Against Poland, the work was finished. Abedi carried the scoring with 25 points, while Mateusz Filipski led Poland with 13. The gap of twenty-two points reflected control rather than a late surge.
The reward was clean. As group leader in the first phase, Iran secured qualification without needing to play the eliminatory round. The team, led by coach Behrouz Soltani, could watch the remaining berths be settled by others. Ottawa hosts the World Championship from 9 to 19 September 2026, gathering the leading teams in the sport. Iran will be among them.
A step forward from Antibes
The context sharpens what happened in Thailand. Two years earlier, at the 2024 Repechage in Antibes, Iran had come to the same crossroads and found it closed. On the opening day, Abedi scored 21 as Iran pushed France to the edge, only to lose 63-62 in a contest decided in the final minutes. That night, a single point separated Iran from the result they wanted. The memory of a margin that thin tends to stay.
Suphan Buri answered it. Where Antibes had been a near miss carried by a fourth-quarter comeback that fell short, this campaign was three wins and no dependence on chance. Abedi's 25 points against Poland were not a rescue act but a closing statement, the top return in a match Iran had already shaped. For a player who had watched qualification slip away by one point, the difference in method mattered as much as the outcome.
Iran now travel to Ottawa. Abedi goes with the number that finished the job.
