On the opening night of the 40th Zoroastrian Janbakhtegan Cup, Kamyar Farzaneh lit the torch of this year’s games, in memory of his late brother, Mahyar Farzaneh, and this was the reason for me to have a short conversation with him during the break.
Our first question: What happened that you were chosen to light the torch of this year’s games?
My name is Kamyar Farzaneh. I am 24 years old, a student of food industry engineering, quality control section. the students Center kindly chose me as torch bearer, because they wanted to commemorate the memory of my brother Mahyar. Four days before the opening I was informed that, as a sign of respect to Mahyar, I would be the torch bearer; necessary arrangements were made, and I came to Tehran. I am very grateful to all the Zoroastrian Students’ Union members who organized the games very well.
Kamyar Farzaneh also had a request from the entire Zoroastrian community:
The Zoroastrian community should give the youth an opportunity to be more active and support them more. Especially, the Youth Center should be supportive and not left to itself. I understand the problems of the Youth Centre and know with what difficulty they organized the games. I am the secretary of the Yaneshvaran Mantre Association, and the biggest concern of young people is the financial issue, which we request from the well-wishers and the board of trustees to help the young people. When the concern about financial problems is removed, the club and most youth can focus on the quality of holding the cup. Again, I repeat my request to please support the community’s athletes. If the current trend continues, and fade in three or four years. We have to do something to revive the sports community. Because of the Corona, everyone stayed away from sports for some reason or the other. and the passion that existed before the corona, to participate in the Janbakhtegan games is no longer there. Those years of the Cup with so many athletes, and so much competition, unfortunately does not exist any more.
In your speech, you mentioned that our sports are fading; what is the reason for that from your point of view?
Some migrated, and other have abandoned sports. We asked them the reason for withdrawing from sports, and the only answer we hear is that the Cup will not hold the games, and so we stopped practicing and doing sports. This is why I said that our sport is fading, and we should all try to return the excitement to our sport and sports community.
Which of the competitions did you participate in, during this Cup?
I participated in individual sports such as table tennis, cycling, running, and swimming.
How is the situation of our fellow believers in yazd, as to sports?
I can’t say that the state of sports in Yazd is good. But slowly, our sports are improving and the children are starting to get training. But comparing to the years before corona we are not in a good state. For example, in 1398 (2019), when the Vahman Cup games were held in Yazd, the presence of participating teams in the Vahman cup was quite good. But last year, being the first after corona, when we had the Vahman Cup games, team attendance was not so good; as far I can remember no team was present. We contacted the teams’ supervisors and asked if they were in the cup. And will you participate or not? With the establishment of this cup and the excellent presence of the fighters in this cup, the spirit of sportsmanship will be strengthened again. We can hold the Wahman Cup and other gatherings like before pandemic.
Is the Zoroastrian Association of Yazd supporting the young athletes?
Yes, they are.
Do Zoroastrians of Yazd have a swimming pool for our sports community, so that our young members can swim in it?
No, we don’t have a pool of our own.
How would you evaluate this round of the games?
The 4th Cup has been well organized upto this date. The members of the Youth Center have worked very hard and everything is orderly; it’s just that the teams are a little qualitatively either at a very high level or at a low level, the average grade is not seen in the groups. The members of the association worked very hard. They worked hard and the games were held in the best way possible, from the very first day. The opening ceremony was excellent, and they worked very hard.