2017 Summer Universiade, Taipei: men's taewkondo under-63 kilograms gold. 2019 Summer Universiade, Naples: men's taekwondo under-68kg gold, team event gold.

Mirhashem Hosseini has a world silver, an Asian Games gold and three titles from the pinnacle of student sport.

And like so many of the world's leading sports performers, his career springboarded from appearances at the World University Games.

Hosseini was 18 when he competed at the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei, where he won under-63 kilograms gold after defeating Argentina's Lucas Guzman - who two years later would win world bronze and Pan American Games gold.

At the 2019 Summer Universiade in Naples this product of the taekwondo-mad city of Mianeh moved up a category to the under-68kg class, and the result was golden once again as he defeated Belgium's Si Mohamed Ketbi in the final.

Hosseini left Italy with two golds after helping Iran defeat Egypt in the men's team final.

Victory in the under-58kg flyweight class at the 2016 Asian Championships had announced Hosseini's arrival at the top level of senior competition. 

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.

The following year, as well as earning his first Universiade gold, 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, the year of his double gold in Naples, Hosseini continued his momentum with Grand Prix wins in Rome and Chiba, where he showed his courage after being knocked out by a stray punch from Britain's Christian McNeish in the third round of the final, finishing strongly to take the gold with a 36-20 scoreline.

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."

At 22, Mirhashem Hosseini has a world silver, an Asian Games gold and an excellent chance of helping to rectify Iran’s Olympic reputation in taekwondo at this summer’s scheduled Tokyo 2020 Games.