While Hosseini has earned numerous prestigious medals, it was the nature of victory in the 2019 Chiba Grand Prix that highlighted the courage and competitiveness that gives his country such high hopes.

In the third round of the men’s under-68 kilograms final against Britain’s Christian McNeish the Iranian fighter was hit in the neck by an accidental stray punch from his opponent.

"For some seconds, I could not breathe," Mirashem Hosseini told World Taekwondo as he recalled the moment when he found himself lying on the mats looking up at the ceiling of the venue. "Everywhere was dark."

It was the second punch he had suffered in an intense, high-scoring bout. "It was a very hard punch," he said. "I felt a lot of pain."

Once again he struggled to his feet and resumed battle.

A minute remained on the clock and he had the narrowest of winning margins at 20-19. Rather than seeking to play it safe and run down the clock, Hosseini fired into whirlwind combat.

The board went to 25-20, then 27-20, then 31-20 as the Iranian fired multiple head kicks and McNeish hit the deck. The Iranian eventually took the title 36-20…

Born in the taekwondo-mad city of Mianeh, Hosseini  announced his arrival in the premier ranks of the sport by winning the Asian Championships under-58kg flyweight title in 2016. He did so four months before Iran's taekwondo team failed to win a single medal at the Rio Olympics.

The following year the 6ft 3in athlete took another big step up as he moved to the under-63kg bantamweight class.

After defeating Britain's current world under-68kg champion Bradly Sinden - his contemporary - 33-32 in an epic World Taekwondo President's Cup Europe final, Hosseini went all the way to the world final, taking silver after an 11-5 defeat by China's Rio 2016 champion Zhao Shuai.

Two months later Hosseini added another gold to his collection as he won the under-63kg title at the 2017 Summer Universiade in Chinese Taipei, beating Argentina's Lucas Guzman in the final.

The following year he earned golden revenge for his world final defeat as he beat Zhao 17-11 to take the Asian Games under-63kg title in Jakarta.

The year of 2018 also saw Hosseini establish himself at his current fighting weight - the under-68kg featherweight class. At the Manchester Grand Prix he was narrowly beaten in the final, 11-7, by South Korea's Olympic bronze medallist and world champion Lee Dae-Hoon.

In 2019, Hosseini continued his momentum with Grand Prix wins in Rome and Chiba. He also earned a second Universiade gold at Naples in the under-68kg category, as well as helping Iran earn team gold.

The latter success in particular augurs well for Iran's next Olympic showing.

Recalling the 2016 Olympics experience, Hosseini's coach Fariborz Askari told World Taekwondo after his win in Chiba last September: "Rio was a very big surprise for us, for three years Iranian taekwondo was in shock.

"Now, we are slowly growing up and waking up. We should use those bad dreams from Rio and change them."

Victory in Rome had been another significant marker for the young Iranian, given that his opponent in the final was Lee.

His South Korean rival recouped his reputation in the last big event of 2019, however, by beating Hosseini in the semi-finals of the Grand Prix final in Moscow, a Tokyo 2020 qualifier, and going on to take gold with a defeat of Sinden.

Hosseini's favourite technique is the arcing head kick, fired from up close.

"In camp, we train the clinch a lot," Hosseini said. "I try to find an opening – up or down, left or right. I have a lot of techniques in the clinch: I can kick both ways.

"But for me, the first thing is the mind. In the camp, I am always thinking about the next competition, the next strategy, the next opponent – always thinking about attacking and defending."

Hosseini took up the sport when he was nine.

He told World Taekwondo: "I saw a Jackie Chan movie and was so interested in doing martial arts. Near my home was a taekwondo club so I went there and started.

"My city is a very small town, but the only medal we don't have is an Olympic medal.

"They have every other medal: juniors, cadets, worlds, Grand Prix – everything! The dream is to get Olympic gold for the city."