WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING No.147

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL WEIGHTLIFTING FEDERATION

A WAVE OF RECORDS LAUNCHED BY THESE STARS IN 2019:

SHI ZHIYONG, CHEN LIJUN, TALAKHADZE LASHA, KUO HSING-CHUN, KASHIRINA TATIANA, DENG WEI, CALEIDOSCOPE OF CONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019 IWF YOUTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Published by International Weightlifting Federation DR. TAMÁS AJÁN IWF President IOC Honorary Member MOHAMMED JALOOD IWF General Secretary Editor-in-Chief KORNÉL JANCSÓ Senior Editor ANIKÓ NÉMETH-MÓRA Communication Director LILLA ROZGONYI Photos JÓZSEF SZAKA Art Editor Crazy Panda Studio Graphic Design Marcell Studio (www.marcelltamas.hu) Spanish & Russian Editions DAVID COLON ARROYO MARINA SHAFIT ÁGNES LUKÁCSFALVI

CONTENTS No.147 02-03 | FOREWORD 04-10 | 2019 IWF YOUTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – LAS VEGAS, USA

Printed by TypoNova (www.typonova.hu) All communications: world.weightlifting@iwfnet.net www.iwf.net facebook.com/iwfnet twitter.com/iwfnet instagram.com/iwfnet youtube.com/iwfmedia Any articles, results or photos published in WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING may be reproduced without the written consent of the IWF, however, reference should be made to this publication.

11 |

INTERVIEW WITH PHIL ANDREWS

12 | CONTINENTAL CALEIDOSCOPE 13-19 |

2019 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – BATUMI, GEO

20-22 | FOCUS ON CHINA 23-29 | 2019 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – NINGBO, CHN 30-35 | 2019 PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – GUATEMALA CITY, GUA 36-41 | 2019 AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – CAIRO, EGY 42-43 | LIFTERS OF THE YEAR 2018 44-45 | 2019 IWF JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS PREVIEW 47 |

WOMEN’S PAGE

ISSN 0230-3035

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 1

› FOREWORD

FOREWORD

T

Dear Friends,

aking into consideration that we are in the middle of 2019, and the IWF has fulfilled the very last condition set by the International Olympic Committee for weightlifting to remain on the Olympic programme, this is the news I wish to open this Foreword with.

The last piece of the puzzle within our complex anti-doping programme – something that the IWF intended to do anyway but the IOC also set out as an immediate provision to confirming weightlifting in the 2024 Paris Games – was to sign the agreement with the International Testing Agency (ITA) on the transfer of our Testing program. The agreement now duly signed by both parties: weightlifting shall be able to record an unbroken line as an Olympic sport since 1896. By all means, that is the main achievement of recent times!

At the level of weekdays, the Olympic Qualification Events have been running at full speed towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. In April alone four Continental Championships of qualifying value were carried out, still within the first qualification period. At this point, we need to call attention to certain new rules and stipulations in the Olympic Qualification System. Every Olympian aspirant must register more than one participation in specified Qualification Events in each period, in order to be considered for Tokyo. What does it mean?

It means that all future Olympians must be available not only for out-of-competition but also in-competition testing throughout the entire pre-Olympic period! Just another important tool in our fight for a clean sport. At the same time, I must remind everyone that the IOC keeps on monitoring our anti-doping activities, so we cannot just lay back and think our job is finished with having fulfilled their requirements.

Speaking of our member federations I must give special focus to China, one of the nine countries that completed a suspension. Its Weightlifting Association has undergone complete makeover; whereby the entire Chinese sport is also experiencing a major restructuring process. The former General Secretary has been confirmed in the President’s position and he, alongside the other Federation leaders, very intelligently assess their status and situation within the sport. They do not target the IWF with criticism for its strict measures, because they clearly understand that it was not the International Federation that created the positive doping cases. China is an excellent partner and it should also be mentioned that the whole renewal and transformation process in the sport and in the CWA took place in a fully democratic manner. China has adopted and has been implementing at its own level the IWF AntiDoping Policy thus providing clear guarantees for a harmonious cooperation. I would like to put China as an example for course of action to the other federations. Without such approach and actions we shall not be able to keep weightlifting clean.

2 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

U

ndoubtedly thanks to the new Olympic Qualification System, significant competitions abound in our Calendar. In July, an Olympic Test Event will take place in Tokyo, but the immediate next major challenge is the 2019 IWF Junior World Championships. A proof that the IWF thinks globally and that we lay special emphasis on the development of the sport in Oceania: the venue is Suva, Fiji. Given that Oceania does not host too many world championships, and within the continent it will be the first one ever in the Pacific Region, the 2019 JWC on this Pacific Island is a sensation on its own. Fiji devotes exceptional attention and care to this event. The head of the Organising Committee is no lesser person than Dr. Robin Mitchell, Acting President of the ANOC, and President of ONOC the Organisation of the National Olympic Committees, a native of Fiji himself. To us it is pleasant to acknowledge that top sports leaders of the 21st Century are paying special attention to weightlifting. We look forward to a historic event in Fiji.

DR. TAMĂ S AJĂ N IWF PRESIDENT

The IWF President was welcomed in Beijing by Mr. GUO Zhongwen, NOC President and Sports Minister of China and Mr. ZHOU Jinqiang, CWA President

› 2019 IWF YOUTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - LAS VEGAS, USA TEXT: ANIKÓ NÉMETH-MÓRA PHOTO: NAT AREM (HOOKGRIP)

YOUNG LIFTERS WINNING THE STAGE IN CASINO CITY

I

t is common saying that in America “everything is big”. Well, this axiom applied perfectly to the series of weightlifting events that took place in March 2019 in the US entertainment city, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Many things were indeed enormous. Starting right away with the hotel that was the home to the weightlifting competitions, IWF meetings, Congress, and all of their participants. The Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino is huge with its about 3,000(!) rooms, adjacent more than spacious conference and convention facilities. The Westgate was built in 1969 and was home to Elvis Presley, and he sold out all 837 shows he performed there. By today a skilled organiser of big weightlifting events, USA Weightlifting chose this venue for the 2019 IWF Youth World Championships for good reason. The complex comfortably accommodated not only the international delegations and guests but the participants of the Las Vegas International Open and the US National University & U25 Championships that were running under the same room with the YWC and, in fact, by far outnumbered the latter in terms of athlete turnouts. In the large halls, competitions were held on 4 platforms at the same time, with the centre point being, of course, the stage of the 8th edition of the IWF Youth Worlds.

Among the technical innovations introduced at this Youth World Championships the most significant was the Video Playback Technology (VPT). The teams quickly picked up the new possibility and several challenges were requested.

Not tagged as a qualification event to any Games, the YWC attracted altogether 175 athletes (83 girls and 92 boys) from 42 countries, many of them making their international debut. For the first time in history, the youth (13-17 years) aged lifters competed in 10 female and 10 male bodyweight categories.

The 2019 edition of the IWF Youth World Championships finished with double success for the host nation USA, showing the strength of next-generation US Weightlifting. This is the first time that both the male and female teams won the team classification.

However, it was not only on the platform that Las Vegas proved to be the lucky charm for Team USA: the professional crew under the leadership of Ursula PAPANDREA, President and Phil ANDREWS, CEO made sure all guests went home satisfied and with a feeling of a successful event.

Dwelling on the teams’ performance, besides recognising USA’s prominence, it should be added that China, Russia and North-Korea eventually decided to skip this World Championships. The absence of such nations naturally opened up winning chances to others of which Turkey, coming up again, Mexico, Chinese Taipei and Peru(!) should be mentioned.

In terms of medals, the ranking showed a very different picture from the team classification. Here, among the women, Uzbekistan was most diligent in collecting 7 gold and 2 silver medals. Turkey was next best with 7 gold and 4 bronze and Mexico the third with 3 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals.

In the boys’ medal tally Kazakhstan’s youth lifters collected the most medals: 9 gold, 3 silver.

Bulgaria excelled as second best with its 5 and 1 medal allocation, and Vietnam came in third with 4 gold medals and 1 bronze.

40kg Medals

4 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

That the efforts at providing a level playing field are more and more successful is visibly demonstrated by the fact that among the girls 17 out of the participating 29 countries, and among the boys 19(!) out of the 33 managed to pick up medals. In both genders 9 were able to put gold medal winners on the podium. Countries with little or no previous medal record stepped forward with their youth lifters, such as Belgium, Brazil, Mongolia, Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia (!)

On this occasion, IWF tested an exceptionally high ratio of athletes (65%).

Las Vegas giving the first opportunity to set youth world records by exceeding the World Standards, some young lifters took the chance and managed to write their names into the record books. Out of the women, Youth Olympic champion Kumushkhon FAYZULLAEVA from Uzbekistan claimed two new youth world records in the 64kg category: 122kg in clean 55kg: Sergio MASSIDDA, ITA and jerk and 215kg in total. Turkish Dilara NARIN in 76kg was also successful setting a youth world record in clean and jerk with 129kg.

In the boys’ ranks altogether 6 youth world records were born and 5 of these are written across the same name: belonging to 15-year-old Tu Tung DO of Vietnam. In the 55kg this prodigy claimed one world record in snatch (95kg), 2 in clean and jerk (117kg and 125kg) and with those 2 in total (212kg and 220kg). The only other champion who also introduced his name in the records’ register was Saikhan TAISUYEV, Kazakhstan.

Now, let’s take a look at what happened on the platform during the 8 competition days of the Youth World Championships.

5 YOUTH RECORDS FALL ON FIRST DAY Vietnamese Tu Tung DO, 2018 Asian Youth Champion set the tune in the 49kg setting 5 new youth world records and assembling a whopping 40kg advantage over the second finisher, Romanian Florin Cosmin KRUPLA (180kg).

In the men’s 55kg bodyweight category, Italian Sergio MASSIDDA, 2018 European Youth, and Junior bronze medallist won the Snatch with a one-kilogram advantage over Ogabek NAFASOV (UZB). Performing even stronger in the Clean and jerk, he came out to lift 125kg at his first attempt, which granted him all three gold medals (228kg).

In the women’s smallest category, the 40kg, with just three competitors on the stage, two Turkish girls picked up all the gold (Cansu BEKTAS) and bronze (Zeliha ULKER) medals, while HONG Zi Yu from TPE received the three silvers.

The girls’ 45kg resulted in triple crown for Vietnam’s Thi Thu Trang NGUYEN. Behind her, Chinese Taipei, Turkey and Ecuador shared the rest of the medals.

The men’s 61kg again looked like a winning category for Vietnam, because Dinh Sang BUI took the snatch gold with his 113kg. In the end, however, Kazakh Sairamkez AKMOLDA stood on the top of the podium, the only one with six good lifts, totalling 257kg. Three kilograms behind him, Yusuf Fehmi GENC (TUR) became second and BUI had to settle for a 3rd position.

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 5

› 2019 IWF YOUTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - LAS VEGAS, USA

UZBEK, KAZAKH: FAST FORWARD In the women’s 49kg bodyweight category all three gold medals went to Uzbek Nigora ABDULLAEVA, last year’s Asian Youth Champion (165kg). Second finisher, 2018 Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist and 2018 European Champion Mihaela Valentina CAMBEI (ROU) made a hard effort for a clean and jerk gold medal but could not perform a good lift at her last attempt at 91kg, meaning ABDULLAEVA remained on the top with 90kg. The 16-year old Romanian broke into tears: she wanted to take home one gold at least. The bronze medal stayed at home; American Kaiya Lashay BRYANT earned it with a 154kg total result.

There was a tense fight Sairamkez AKMOLDA, KAZ – 61kg for the silver and bronze medals in men’s 67kg bodyweight category, but there was no doubt about the first place.

Saikhan TAISUYEV (KAZ) had an 18kg advantage at the end over Georgian silver medallist Gurami GIORBELIDZE (288kg). TAISUYEV set a new clean and jerk youth world record with his very last lift at 161kg. Turkmen Bektimur REYIMOV became third, missing the silver with only one kilogram (269kg).

STERCKX PUTS BELGIUM ON YOUTH MAP Bronze medallist at the 2018 European Youth Championships, Belgian Nina STERCKX dominated the women’s 55kg bodyweight category, beating her competitor,

49kg: Nigora ABDULLAEVA, UZB

CHOU Yuan-Tzu (TPE) with 175kg and 172kg total results respectively, and making her coach Tom GOEGEBUER very happy. In the men’s 73kg bodyweight category, both Bulgarian Karlos May Hasan NASAR and 2018 Asian Youth Championships bronze medallist, Asadbek NARIMANOV (UZB) had eyes on the gold medal. The Uzbek had 3kg advantage in the Snatch over NASAR (133kg). Both successfully lifted 154kg in the Clean and jerk and proceeded to attempt 161kg, which proved to be too much for NARIMANOV. The gold medal went to the Bulgarian with a Total of 291kg, while the silver medallist registered at 287kg.

6 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

Best male lifter of Las Vegas: Saikhan TAISUYEV, KAZ – 67kg

Neama Said Fahmi SAID, EGY – 59kg

55kg Medal podium

73kg medallists

NEXT GENERATION: EGYPT, MEXICO Egyptian Neama Said Fahmi SAID won three gold medals in the women’s 59kg bodyweight category hands down with a total result of 195kg. We had seen her talent shine not too long before, at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, where she finished second.

Two Mexican lifters were fighting for the bronze and silver medals head to head. Daphne GUILLEN VAZQUEZ could lift one kilogram more in the Snatch than her compatriot (82kg), while the advantage shifted to Mariana GARCIA GOMEZ in the clean and jerk (107kg).

Both had a final result of 188kg, but GUILLEN was first to successfully finish the lift, pocketing the silver medal.

The three top lifters in the men’s 81kg had a steady performance, the rankings stayed the same all along the competition.

Kazakh Yessenkeldi SAPI undoubtedly stood out with his outstanding lifting, not missing a single attempt. He easily took the gold medal with a total of 299kg.

The runner up was USA’s athlete, Dade Lawson STANLEY, whose result was close to SAPI’s in the snatch (133kg) but was outlifted by a significant 20kg in the clean and jerk, totalling 288kg. Peruvian Amel Karim ATENCIA PRIOU, bronze medallist at the 2018 Pan-American Youth Championships totalled 274kg, which landed him on the third place of the bodyweight category.

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 7

› 2019 IWF YOUTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - LAS VEGAS, USA

NEWCOMERS FROM TRADITIONAL WEIGHTLIFTING NATIONS Once again two athletes claimed triple gold in their bodyweight categories on day six of the IWF Youth World Championships in Las Vegas.

Turkey’s Dilara NARIN secured a golden hat-trick in the women’s 76-kilogram category.

Dilara NARIN gained her first gold with a snatch of 96kg just four days shy of her 17th birthday. That saw her top the field by 4kg, before she went on the win the clean and jerk title by 13kg with a lift of 129kg. She managed lifts of 86kg and 109kg for a total of 195kg. All in all, NARIN registered a lead by 17 kilograms on triple silver medallist, Armenian Liana GYURJYAN. On the same day, Bulgaria’s Stefcho Dimitrov HRISTOV managed the same feat in the men’s 102kg. Seventeen-year-old HRISTOV gained his first gold in the snatch with a lift of 145kg, which saw him beat Georgia’s Lasha TAKTAKISHVILI by a full 15kg. Azerbaijan’s Ali SHUKURLU, who turns 16 this year, claimed the Snatch bronze with a lift of 125kg. As it turned out the top three remained the same for the clean and jerk and therefore the overall competition as well. (315-290-280kg).

Best woman lifter of the YWC: Kumushk

HAPPINESS FOR CZECH REPUBLIC ON THE LAST DAY On the last competition day of the 2019 IWF Youth Championships, the heaviest men’s and women’s bodyweight categories competed in Las Vegas.

In the women’s +81kg, Spanish Irene BLANCO TARELA proved to be the best.

She secured 3 gold medals with a 91kg Snatch and a 112kg Clean and jerk (203kg Total).

The silver and bronze medals both stayed on home soil, Julia YUN finished second with a 199kg Total, while the other American, Nia Lielani WALKER lifted 196kg, earning the bronze.

In the men’s superheavyweight, we celebrated a Czech Youth World Champion Dominik ORACKO. First, the 16-year-old giant (weighing 147kg) grabbed the gold medal in the snatch with three good lifts, 144kg being the best.

Azerbaijan’s Rahman KAZIMOV stole the clean and jerk gold from ORACKO, both performing the same result, 174kg, but KAZIMOV was first to lift that weight.

Yessenkeldi SAPI, KAZ – 81kg The 76kg medallists 8 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

khon FAYZULLAEVA, UZB – 64kg

Turkmen Atajan DAYIYEV was the third in the +102kg category, with a total of 315kg. After finishing second in the Snatch (143kg), he targeted the total gold with his last clean and jerk attempt at 176kg but failed to complete it, which put him back to the fourth place (172kg) on this lift and second place overall. Ahmad ALALI (SYR) swiped three bronze medals totalling at 309kg.

The winners of the Best Lifter Trophies of IWF were Kumushkhon FAYZULLAEVA, who set two world records in the women’s 64kg bodyweight category and Saikhan TAISUYEV, for his outstanding performance in the men’s 67kg category and clean and jerk world record.

Thank you, Las Vegas! Thank you, USA!

Stefcho Dimitrov HRISTOV, BUL – 102kg

The medal podium in +102kg

The 81kg podium

› 2019 IWF YOUTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - LAS VEGAS, USA WOMEN

MEN

40 KG

49 KG

1 BEKTAS CANSU

23.11.2003

TUR

39.11

54

66

120

1 DO TU TUNG

10.01.2004

VIE

48.81

95 125

220

2 HONG ZI YU 3 ULKER ZELIHA

13.07.2002

TPE

39.96

53

63

116

2 KRUPLA FLORIN COSMIN

20.11.2003

ROU

48.80

79 101

180

02.05.2002

TUR

39.79

45

62

107

3 ERDOGAN MUSTAFA

06.10.2003

TUR

48.71

82

95

177

ITA

54.99 103 125

228

45 KG

55 KG

1 NGUYEN THI THU TRANG

03.06.2003

VIE

44.84

66

75

141

1 MASSIDDA SERGIO

26.01.2002

2 SALDARRIAGA Y. A. PAOLA

21.10.2003

PER

44.75

56

74

130

2 NAFASOV OGABEK

21.01.2002

UZB

54.99 102 121

223

3 ZENG YI FAN

27.07.2002

TPE

44.78

58

70

128

3 POOX P. JOSE MANUEL

17.03.2003

MEX

54.47

95 122

217

1 ABDULLAEVA NIGORA

13.05.2004

UZB

48.81

75

90

165

1 AKMOLDA SAIRAMKEZ

18.05.2002

KAZ

60.93 112 145

257

2 CAMBEI M. VALENTINA

18.11.2002

ROU

48.62

73

86

159

2 GENC YUSUF FEHMI

23.05.2002

TUR

60.60 108 146

254

3 BRYANT KAIYA LASHAY

11.02.2005

USA

48.53

67

87

154

3 BUI DINH SANG

18.02.2002

VIE

60.54 113 130

243

49 KG

61 KG

55 KG

67 KG

1 STERCKX NINA

26.07.2002

BEL

54.70

79

96

175

1 TAISUYEV SAIKHAN

21.05.2002

KAZ

66.66 127 161

288

2 CHOU YUAN-TZU

30.01.2002

TPE

54.75

75

97

172

2 GIORBELIDZE GURAMI

17.03.2002

GEO

65.58 120 150

270

3 COTRUTA ANDREEA

11.11.2003

ROU

54.12

76

95

171

3 REYIMOV BEKTIMUR

04.12.2002

TKM

66.63 122 147

269

1 SAID NEAMA SAID FAHMI

15.11.2002

EGY

58.90

88 107

195

1 NASAR KARLOS MAY HASAN

05.12.2004

BUL

72.67 130 161

291

2 GUILLEN VAZQUEZ DAPHNE

21.03.2002

MEX

58.82

82 106

188

2 NARIMANOV ASADBEK

02.09.2002

UZB

72.69 133 154

287

3 GARCIA GOMEZ MARIANA

30.10.2003

MEX

57.86

81 107

188

3 MISAKIAN AMAGIAK

10.02.2002

GRE

72.73 118 154

272

1 FAYZULLAEVA KUMUSHKHON

20.01.2002

UZB

63.64

93 122

215

1 SAPI YESSENKELDI

24.01.2002

KAZ

80.29 134 175

309

2 ROJAS G. QUEYSI JULISSA

19.03.2002

MEX

61.77

88 107

195

2 STANLEY DADE LAWSON

30.03.2002

USA

78.17 133 155

288

3 ILIE MIHAELA

14.08.2002

ROU

63.80

84 106

190

3 ATENCIA P. AMEL KARIM

18.02.2002

PER

79.68 122 152

274

1 VELAZQUEZ R. EMMY LIZETTE

01.10.2002

MEX

68.60

93 121

214

1 ALOTHMAN ALI YOUSEF A

16.06.2002

KSA

88.29 136 171

307

2 REEVES OLIVIA LYNN

19.04.2003

USA

68.18

84 110

194

2 KARAPETYAN GARIK

06.11.2003

ARM

88.04 137 168

305

3 SALDARRIAGA D. E. BELEN

11.01.2003

PER

69.93

83 102

185

3 GHAHRAMANYAN GEVORG

25.08.2002

ARM

84.42 134 170

304

1 NARIN DILARA

17.03.2002

TUR

74.77

96 129

225

1 BEKBOLAT RAKHAT

14.01.2004

KAZ

93.60 144 179

323

2 GYURJYAN LIANA

13.06.2002

ARM

73.77

92 116

208

2 DEMIRCI ONUR

08.07.2003

TUR

95.31 145 170

315

3 PAREDES A. BELLA NANCY

25.02.2002

ECU

74.43

90 110

200

3 MIRZABAEV MIRKHOSIL

11.05.2002

UZB

95.61 143 168

311

1 PASTUKHOVA OLGA

12.02.2002

KAZ

80.73

92 123

215

1 HRISTOV S. DIMITROV

09.02.2002

BUL

96.82 145 170

315

2 JABBOROVA TURSUNOY

03.04.2002

UZB

79.61

96 118

214

2 TAKTAKISHVILI LASHA

21.02.2002

GEO

97.77 130 160

290

3 NAKAJIMA MOTOKA

02.03.2002

JPN

76.49

86 109

195

3 SHUKURLU ALI

11.09.2003

AZE

96.40 125 155

280

59 KG

73 KG

64 KG

81 KG

71 KG

89 KG

76 KG

96 KG

81 KG

102 KG

+81 KG

+102 KG

1 BLANCO TARELA IRENE

01.12.2002

ESP

84.96

91 112

203

1 ORACKO DOMINIK

07.01.2003

CZE 146.68 144 174

318

2 YUN JULIA

03.09.2004

USA

86.51

90 109

199

2 DAYIYEV ATAJAN

20.05.2002

TKM 120.76 143 172

315

3 WALKER NIA LIELANI

02.04.2002

USA

92.22

86 110

196

3 ALALI AHMAD

01.01.2002

SYR 121.25 136 173

309

10 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

› INTERVIEW TEXT: ADRIENN SZÁSZ

PHIL ANDREWS, CEO OF USA WEIGHTLIFTING

“WE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT WEIGHTLIFTING”

U

SA Weightlifting has dramatically changed in recent years, since Phil Andrews, CEO of the American national federation and his team were appointed to their positions and put under the leadership of Ursula Papandrea, President of USA Weightlifting. They reshaped weightlifting in the country and turned the organization to be one of the most active Member Federations of the IWF. Since then, USA Weightlifting organized many high priority international events, like the World Championships in 2015 and in 2017, and this year, the Youth World Championships in Las Vegas. Andrews was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of USA Weightlifting in 2016, after holding the position of Director of Events & Programs since 2013. He was born in the UK and had not much connection to weightlifting in his younger years.

“I’m not a weightlifter, my sport was ice hockey while I was still living in the United Kingdom. In 2012, I met my American wife at the London Olympic Games and moved to the USA. I worked for national governing bodies before, where I fulfilled various duties, basically everything that didn’t fit in anybody else’s jobs.”

"I started to work for USA Weightlifting as a Director of Events & Programs and a few years after Ursula Papandrea became President, who asked me to be the new CEO. At this time, we also hired some excellent professionals like Pedro Meloni, Events Senior Manager and Pyrros Dimas as Technical Director. We also have specific professionals in our team, like Susie Sanchez, who is a decorated athlete on her own right and is the lead of USA Weightlifting’s growth programs strategy.”

“The current team is extremely effective, and Ursula Papandrea does an excellent job supporting and nurturing our efforts.”

“We try to host as many large scale international events as possible because they motivate our athletes and engage our fans. Beside that, this is our way to show we are serious about weightlifting to the audience, to the athletes and, last but not least, the IWF.” “In Las Vegas, 4 competitions were running on four platforms simultaneously. We had nearly 100 barbell sets set up between UESAKA and Rogue Fitness, 16 Technical Officials working at any given time and around 850 weightlifters in the building at once, training and competing plus their coaches and staff. Over 100 Universities from all over the country represented themselves at the University Nationals. It was a great chance for us to show what we are capable of.”

“In the future, we will continue to excel at hosting events and hope to attract new weightlifting stars to shine at the Olympic Games and other international events.”

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 11

CONTINENTAL CALEIDOSCOPE

BATUMI, NINGBO, GUATEMALA CITY, CAIRO

EUROPE AND ASIA IN “REMOTE DUEL” AT BREAKING WORLD RECORDS

D

estiny – in a more down-to-earth phrasing: the IWF Calendar of Events – had it so that as many as four Continental challenges were held in April, each one an important landmark on the Road to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. With these Gold Level Qualification Events – meaning most valuable at scoring qualification points – the first period was concluded.

Especially for those who had never taken part in high-ranked qualification competitions since the introduction of the new bodyweight categories last November the Continental Championships 2019 carried added importance.

The turnouts thus heavily influenced and the stakes raised, the Continental events attracted old and new faces alike in the month of April, and outstanding performances were also seen. Scores of highlights were registered at the Pan-American Championships held in Guatemala City, just like at the African Championships in Cairo. However, different standards characterized at the two leading Continents in the weightlifting sport: Europe and Asia. Both in Batumi, Georgia, where the European Championships, and in Ningbo, China, where the Asian Championships took place resulted in several new senior world records, not to mention the abundance of youth or junior records.

Due to the closeness of their dates, the latter two championships might as well be regarded as a parallel Continental Duel: Europe and Asia fought in “remote mode” for the glory of a higher number of world records broken, while neither Africa, nor even Pan-America could interfere. On the following pages we are giving a short account of the Continents’ challenges.

› 2019 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS - BATUMI, GEO TEXT: KORNÉL JANCSÓ PHOTO: GREGOR WINTER

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH SUPERHEAVY PARADE

T

he best weightlifters of Europe’s countries met between 6 and 13 April in Batumi, third largest city in Georgia after Tbilisi and Kutaisi. The famous seaside resort welcomed the guests with the warm hospitality so common for Georgians and the – by now also usual – high level organisation and presentation. No wonder at that, since the Organising Committee is under the baton of 3-times Olympic champion and Georgian Federation President Kakhi KAKHIASHVILI, and his “right hand” David KIPSHIDZE.

The 2019 Batumi European Championships proved to be another great event worthy of the just now 50-year-old European Weightlifting Federation. Altogether 325 weightlifters came from 41 countries of Europe – all inspired by the venue, its innovative stage and backdrop design or the novelties in the warmup area. Performances added to the overall success of the Championships; the result book was studded with altogether 5 world records for seniors, besides their 10 European records; complete with 16 junior and 2 youth Continental records: 33 in total. Interestingly, lighter-weight categories were less productive in terms of records; at times modest results were enough to win the medals.

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the European Weightlifting Federation, IWF recognition presented by Mohammed Jaloud, IWF General Secretary and Attila Ádámfi, IWF Director General to EWF President Antonio Urso and EWF General Secretary Hasan Akkus

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 13

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2019 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS - BATUMI, GEO - WOMEN

RUSSIAN LADIES TOOK HOME 22 MEDALS

S

pectators could applaud a new record first in the 55kg for the women. The snatch entry had to be modified here: Belgian Nina STERCKX was first to improve the youth record to 82kg, followed by Italian Lucrezia MAGISTRIS set a junior European record with 90kg. STERCKX also modified the youth European total record to 183kg.

In 59kg, junior world and European champion and still just 21-year-old Rebeka KOHA (LAT), defending European champion, pocketed the three gold medals despite lagging after her own earlier best marks. In 64kg Romania had its day thanks to Loredana Elena TOMA and her compatriot Irina LEPSA together collected six medals: 3 in gold, 2 in silver and 1 in bronze. World champion two years ago and two-times European champion, TOMA captured her third continental title, while setting a new European record in snatch at 111kg.

Rebeka KOHA, LAT – 3 gold medals in 59kg

The 64kg medal podium with Romanian winner Loredana-Elena TOMA

Medals in 74kg

14 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

› 2019 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS - BATUMI, GEO - WOMEN

T

he big surprise of the 76kg was delivered by 2017 and 2018 Lifter of the Year, 3-fold Olympic medallist Spanish Lidia VALENTIN by winning only in snatch but losing to Darya NAUMAVA (BLR) in both clean and jerk and in

total.

Undoubtedly, the icing on the cake for the women’s Championships was served on the last day of competition in the last category – thanks to the effective input by Tatiana KASHIRINA. In possession of the top titles in all kinds of world-level events – with the sole exception of the Olympic Games where she has a silver only – the Russian star started to throw records right at the snatch in plus 87kg. After 140kg she took 146kg and lifted it, setting a new world

record; in fact breaking her own previous best by one kilogram. In the second act she added more power: in three straight lifts she finished with 185kg, thus marking a new world record in total as well (331kg) – here again improving her own best mark. No better evidence of KASHIRINA’s excellence than the 63kg(!) difference between her and the next best’s total results.

The Iron Lady heavily contributed to the supremacy of Russia in the Medal Tally at the women: 9 gold, 10 silver and 3 bronze medals put them in first place. Altogether 19 nations scored medals here, with 11 getting gold.

The ranking goes: ROU (6, 3, 4), LAT (3, 0, 0), BLR (2, 2, 1), TUR (2, 1, 1), POL (2, 0, 1), GRE (2, 0, 1), ESP (1, 2, 0), ITA (1, 1, 2), BUL (1, 1, 1), BEL (1, 0, 1).

Lidia VALENTIN, ESP was best in snatch

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 15

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2019 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS - BATUMI, GEO - WOMEN

WOMEN

A new world record weight dropping after being successfully hoisted by superb Tatiana KASHIRINA, RUS (+87kg)

45 KG 1 ERDOGAN SAZIYE

23.02.1992

TUR

44.96

75

88

163

2 PETROVA IVANA GEROGIEVA

26.08.2001

BUL

45.00

69

89

158

3 ASAYONAK YULIYA

13.07.1994

BLR

44.74

69

81

150

1 ANDRIES ELENA RAMONA

21.09.1994

ROU

48.78

87 103

190

2 SOBOL KRISTINA IVANOVNA

30.11.1991

RUS

48.72

85

95

180

3 RUSSO GIORGIA

28.04.1993

ITA

48.76

75 103

178

49 KG

55 KG 1 LOCHOWSKA JOANNA

17.11.1988

POL

54.68

87 112

199

2 ERSHOVA SVETLANA

14.03.1994

RUS

54.44

90 108

198

3 NOVITSKAIA KRISTINA

22.09.1999

RUS

54.50

85 105

190

1 KOHA REBEKA

19.05.1998

LAT

58.44 101 120

221

2 ALEEVA TATIANA

01.03.1991

RUS

58.64

94 120

214

3 KOZLOVA ALEKSANDRA

24.04.1997

RUS

58.94

96 117

213

1 TOMA LOREDANA-ELENA

10.05.1995

ROU

63.86 111 128

239

2 LEPSA IRINA-LACRAMIOARA

06.06.1992

ROU

63.38 102 127

229

3 SMITH ZOE

26.04.1994

GBR

63.90

96 128

224

59 KG

64 KG

71 KG 1 ROMANOVA ANASTASIIA

02.10.1991

RUS

70.38 112 128

240

2 GODLEY EMILY VICTORIA

22.10.1989

GBR

69.74

93 123

216

3 MOLIE MADALINA-BIANCA

27.04.1996

ROU

64.96 101 114

215

1 NAUMAVA DARYA

26.08.1995

BLR

74.48 106 136

242

2 VALENTIN PEREZ LIDIA

10.02.1985

ESP

75.50 108 133

241

3 STRENIUS P. CAROLINE

23.11.1989

SWE

72.94 101 132

233

1 KONSTANTINIDI ELENI

03.02.1995

GRE

79.98

97 126

223

2 SCHROTH NINA

16.08.1991

GER

80.40 102 120

222

3 VANBELLINGHEN ANNA

10.03.1994

BEL

80.56 103 118

221

1 PASKHINA KSENIIA

19.11.1994

RUS

86.72 110 132

242

2 MSTIEVA DIANA

25.11.1994

RUS

86.64 110 130

240

3 FISCHER SARAH

09.11.2000

AUT

86.08 102 129

231

1 KASHIRINA TATIANA

24.01.1991

RUS 105.76 146 185

331

2 LYSENKO ANASTASIIA

02.12.1995

UKR 104.40 120 148

268

3 CAMPBELL EMILY JADE

06.05.1994

GBR 118.74 115 145

260

76 KG

81 KG

87 KG

+87 KG

16 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

› 2019 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS - BATUMI, GEO - MEN

WITH HIS RECORD SHOWER TALAKHADZE OUTSHONE EVERYBODY ELSE

A

t Batumi, in the men’s section Italian Mirco SCARANTINO earned his fifth consecutive European champion title in 55kg. At the same time, the most remarkable performance in the category belonged to Bulgarian Angel RUSEV. (The name sounds good in weightlifting, doesn’t it?) Just turning 18 years old in July, the young Bulgarian lifted 146kg in clean and jerk, 256kg in total, the former giving him the gold, the latter the silver medals. Needless to point out that both results were junior European records.

France could celebrate their champion in 67kg, where weathered Bernardin KINGUE MATAM let his supremacy in clean and jerk help him to the final victory by 1kg on Simon BRANDHUBER from Germany.

Meanwhile, snatch winner Daniyar ISMAYILOV of Turkey, Olympic silver medallist and former European champion, surprisingly bombed in the clean and jerk.

In 73kg three teenagers vied for excellence and their battle produced several junior Continental records. In snatch, Marin ROBU (MDA) lifted 148kg; in clean and jerk Romanian Paul DUMITRASCU, also born in 2000,

produced 177kg. This result was further improved to 180kg by 18-year-old Turkish Furkan OZBEK. The latter two young men set junior European records in total as well: 321kg, then 325kg. No matter what, neither competitors were able to reach the medals. The total gold in this category was won by 22-year-old Bulgarian Bozhidar ANDREEV with his 345kg senior European record.

Out of the 81kg field Ritvars SUHAREVS (20) from Latvia excelled with his 162, 192 and 354kg junior European records, hitting the gold in snatch and the bronze in total. The competition had many ups and downs, but in the end, in the combined ranking the first place was earned with 365kg by 22-year-old Italian Antonio PIZZOLATO, 2016 junior European champion.

Georgian success in 89kg warmed up the mood of the local crowds thanks to 21-year-old Revaz DAVITADZE, who was the best in snatch (170kg). However, his “neighbour” Armenian Hakob MKRTCHYAN flashed his supremacy in two clean and jerk attempts (201, 207kg), just enough to give him the gold medal of the lift and of the total.

A crowded podium in 67kg but happiest was Bernardin KINGUE MATAM, FRA because he took the total gold medal

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 17

In 73kg Bulgarian Bozhidar ANDREEV excelled in two disciplines: weightlifting and gymnastics…

Antonio PIZZOLATO delivered the total gold to Italy in 81kg thanks to his strong clean and jerk performance

18 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

I

Armenian Hakob MKRTCHYAN was supreme in clean and jerk in 89kg

n 96kg 20-year-old Yauheni TSIKHANTSOU from Belarus reached a round 400kg total, meaning a new European record, and he pocketed all the three gold medals.

The 102kg went by without any particular surprises: Ukrainian Dmytro CHUMAK scored a convincing victory of 14kg difference.

Even less excitement was caused by the 109kg, where – after securing a small gold on the snatch – Armenia’s prodigy, Olympic silver medallist, World champion, etc. (and still just 22 years old)Simon MARTIROSYAN started to toy with the weights in clean and jerk: 225, 235kg…. – he did not need to continue to defeat his 11 years older opponent, Andrei ARAMNAU from Belarus, who had seen better and worse days alike.However, the Batumi show was stolen by the one-andonly Lasha TALAKHADZE, the local superstar. In the +109kg, TALAKHADZE warmed up with 208kg, only to jump to 218kg for a second attempt. He snatched it successfully, breaking his own 217-kg world record from last year’s Ashgabat World Championships. He did not appear for a third time.

In clean and jerk, his showing again consisted of merely two lifts: taking 245kg for an opening attempt (all too easy!) to secure the total, then having the barbell loaded to 260kg. This magnificent weight did not resist him either, so ever since 13 April 2019, the new absolute world record in weightlifting is 260kg! By the way, TALAKHADZE raised the total world record as well from his own 474kg in Ashgabat to 478kg in Batumi.

To prove that the Georgian team does not only consist of TALAKHADZE, the men’s medal ranking was also won by the host country with 5 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals. They are followed by: BLR (5, 5, 4), ARM (5, 3, 4), ITA (4, 1, 1), BUL (3, 1, 1), UKR (3, 0, 2), FRA (2, 0, 0), TUR (1, 5, 4), ALB (1, 2, 2), LAT (1, 1, 2). In all 15 countries shared the medals.

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2019 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS - BATUMI, GEO

20-year-old Yauheni TSIKHANTSOU, BLR rounded up the European record to 400kg and won the 96kg

MEN 55 KG 1 SCARANTINO MIRCO

16.01.1995

ITA

54.88 116 145

261

2 RUSEV ANGEL HRISKOV

13.07.2001

BUL

54.98 110 146

256

3 SAHIN MUAMMER

05.02.1994

TUR

54.88 112 135

247

1 LAPTSEU HENADZ

15.12.1998

BLR

60.60 133 153

286

2 SEZER BUNYAMI

04.07.1988

TUR

60.94 132 151

283

3 HARDAL FERDI

31.12.1996

TUR

60.94 127 155

282

1 KINGUE MATAM B. LEDOUX

20.05.1990

FRA

66.84 137 175

312

2 BRANDHUBER SIMON JOSEF

27.06.1991

GER

66.78 146 165

311

3 CHKHEIDZE GOGA

11.02.1996

GEO

66.72 139 169

308

1 ANDREEV B. DIMITROV

17.01.1997

BUL

72.84 153 192

345

2 CALJA BRIKEN

19.02.1990

ALB

72.84 156 183

339

3 LIKHARAD VADZIM

06.09.1993

BLR

72.86 153 182

335

1 PIZZOLATO ANTONINO

20.08.1996

ITA

80.92 155 201

356

2 ASAYONAK PETR

27.02.1993

BLR

80.56 159 196

355

3 SUHAREVS RITVARS

11.01.1999

LAT

80.76 162 192

354

1 MKRTCHYAN HAKOB

08.03.1997

ARM

88.82 164 207

371

2 DAVITADZE REVAZ

16.10.1998

GEO

88.22 170 200

370

3 HOVHANNISYAN DAVIT

14.01.1997

ARM

88.50 165 195

360

1 TSIKHANTSOU YAUHENI

04.11.1998

BLR

95.66 178 222

400

2 KLIMONOV EGOR

24.08.1992

RUS

95.78 168 210

378

3 PLIESNOI ANTON

17.09.1996

GEO

95.66 173 204

377

61 KG

67 KG

Every performance by Simon MARTIROSYAN, ARM brings new heights and supreme lifting (109kg)

73 KG

81 KG

89 KG

96 KG

In front of the frantic home crowd, mighty Lasha TALAKHADZE, GEO registered 3 world records including the historic 260kg clean and jerk

102 KG 1 CHUMAK DMYTRO

11.07.1990

UKR 101.42 175 216

391

2 GASPARYAN SAMVEL

24.11.1997

ARM 101.50 168 209

377

3 STRALTSOU VADZIM

30.04.1986

BLR 100.68 170 206

376

1 MARTIROSYAN SIMON

17.02.1997

ARM 108.98 192 235

427

2 ARAMNAU ANDREI

17.04.1988

BLR 108.50 190 221

411

3 BOCHKOV RODION

27.09.1993

RUS 108.96 192 218

410

1 TALAKHADZE LASHA

02.10.1993

GEO 170.10 218 260

478

2 TURMANIDZE IRAKLI

13.12.1984

GEO 139.15 206 241

447

3 ALEKSANYAN RUBEN

14.03.1990

ARM 153.10 195 245

440

109 KG

+109 KG

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 19

› INTERVIEW - FOCUS ON CHINA TEXT: BRIAN OLIVER

FOCUS ON CHINA How did China become so dominant in weightlifting? Fifteen world records, in the new bodyweight categories, have already gone to Chinese athletes, and China has won five gold medals at every Olympic Games since Sydney 2000.

C

hina’s teams have been top of the medals table at the Olympic Games and IWF World Championships every time they have competed this century except for once, when Russia outperformed them in Antalya in 2001 - the first time Russian females won world titles.

China has been at the top of world weightlifting for decades, but it did not rejoin the International Olympic Committee until 1979, after a 21-year absence, so how did it manage to overtake the European nations that dominated in the 1970s and 1980s?

The IWF Fuzhou World Cup in February provided a chance to ask that question, to Olympic champions, to ZHOU Jinqiang, President of the Chinese Weightlifting Association (CWA), and to one of the sport’s greatest coaches, CHEN Wenbin.

The simplest answer came from DENG Wei, the 63kg Olympic champion and triple world record holder at the new weight of 64kg.

“We have more people so we have more children in the sport. We start young and all the way through we have very, very good coaches."

YANG Xia, China's first female Olympic gold medallist in weightlifting, at Sydney 2000, said: “The reason China is so good is step-by-step progress, and training hard at every level. It took me seven years in my province’s team to make the national team. I worked very hard.”

Weightlifting and table tennis are the two sports that had an advantage over others in China, said CWA president Zhou.

In 1956 weightlifter CHEN Jingkai, at a “friendship match” against the Soviet Union in Shanghai, became the first Chinese athlete in any sport to set a world record. Three years later RONG Guotuan became China’s first world champion, in table tennis.

“The structure was put in place for these sports to develop from the 1950s,” said ZHOU. “Weightlifting is an important way to change your life, especially in remote areas.”

Tens of thousands of children train in weightlifting at school, starting to learn technique at the age of 10. There are elementary school teams, city teams, county teams, specialist sport school teams, province teams at all age groups, and the formidable national team.

There are 23 provinces, many more administrative regions – and the strongest provinces will have 80 full-time weightlifters, often based at palatial headquarters such as the IWF Fuzhou Training Center. But it was not always like this, as CHEN Wenbin knows better than anybody. Chen Chen Wenbin is his director's office at the IWF Fuzhou Training Centre describes the huge IWF Fuzhou Training Center, home to the Fujian province team and used by visiting teams from abroad, as “heaven”.

But soon after he started working with the Fujian team more than 25 years ago their home was “hell”, on Chuanshi Island, a 40-minute boat ride from Fuzhou. The hard life there, the very basic conditions, the strict rules forbidding smoking, drinking alcohol and “falling in love”, were all part of a tough programme that exemplified how Chinese weightlifters became the best in the world. They had to help with cooking, dig pits to create training stations, endure typhoons, and help build a road up a mountain to their training camp. There was no entertainment, one television in their barracks-style accommodation, and one public telephone on the entire island. Anyone who broke the rules was kicked out of the team.

20 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

With the help of CHEN’s coaching, their early days on Chuanshi Island, and later the facilities at the IWF Fuzhou Training Center, weightlifters from Fujian province have won five of China’s 31 Olympic gold medals. Three of them trained on Chuanshi Island, including DENG Wei. Chen was never ranked higher than fourth when he was in the national team as a lifter, but he says he was “enriched by my own deficiencies” when he later studied coaching, focusing on ways in which he could have improved his own performance.

He has trained three Olympic champions and six world champions individually, nine Olympic gold medallists as China’s head coach, and “WE START YOUNG AND ALL hundreds of other national and international winners. He was deputy head coach of China’s national men’s team for four years, and head THE WAY THROUGH WE HAVE coach for 10 years until he retired in 2016. He is now Director of the IWF Fuzhou Training Center, which he was responsible for creating.

VERY, VERY GOOD COACHES.” Sitting in his palatial office he discusses, over several cups of tea, his own career in weightlifting, and China’s remarkable rise to the top.

How did you get started in weightlifting?

During the Cultural Revolution (which started in 1966) weightlifting and other sports were forbidden. From 1973 we started to rebuild China’s sports teams, including weightlifting.

I loved sport, played volleyball in middle school and also trained for shot and discus in athletics. In the 1970s (he was born in 1956) I did strength training and loved it. My former PE teacher suggested to me that I should try to be a weightlifter and try to get into the national team. I went for trials and was accepted. I was 17 when I started training, 18 when I made the provincial team. When I graduated at middle school I went to the countryside to work with and learn from peasant farmers, as we were encouraged to do.

Many of China’s best weightlifters are from rural areas. Why is that?

Yes, they are mostly from a poor background. There are exceptions, a few from wealthy families, such as WU Meijin (a double world champion at 56kg and silver medallist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games) but they are few. Those from wealthy background reach a certain level then stop; they don’t work as hard. Coming from a working-class background is important: training is very hard, very tough and also can be very boring. We need people who can cope with that.

How does the development structure work?

In provinces there are cities and counties – in Fujian 70 counties and six large cities. Two thirds of the counties have special sports schools with a weightlifting programme, plus all the cities. At each school children train after school, they are given one piece of bread and a carton of milk – there are 40-50 lifters per school. There are 2000-3000 schoolchildren, aged 10 upwards, who train regularly. Some will have the potential to be elite lifters, others will go their own way at the end of schooling - and they can continue in weightlifting at clubs, known as courses here, or be a coach.

About 20 provinces have a weightlifting system similar to Fujian, with lower numbers. There are about 30,000-40,000 children regularly training in weightlifting at schools in China.

There are more than 100 coaches in Fujian province, full-time and part-time, about half of them at county level and 30-40% of them female. And there are 70-80 full-time professional weightlifters.

Around the time when China joined the IOC in 1979, weightlifting training was heavily influenced by the Soviet Union and, later, Bulgaria. China now seems to have its own system. How did that happen?

From the 1950s to the 1970s weightlifting was dominated by the Soviet system, the characteristics of which were a high volume of training. In the 80s-90s the Bulgarian system emerged, which was more intense - more maximum lifts. If there is a Chinese system it is based on a combination of these two, and on scientific analysis. We took advantage of both the Soviet and Bulgarian systems, used the physics of both.

Our system is mostly focused on perfecting technique – we want to be precise. That’s why we wanted a diagnostic system, to help with precision, and with injury prevention.

CAO Wenyuan developed that system, and it is very important.

(Cao, who studied in Budapest more than 50 years ago with the IWF President, Tamás Aján, and sat on the IWF Science and Research Committee in the 1990s, has been described as “a valuable and long-lasting partner of Chinese weightlifting” for his analytical research work with the national team).

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 21

› INTERVIEW - FOCUS ON CHINA

Deng Wei at the Fuzhou World Cup a day after breaking three world records

It is easy to be injured, so we developed ways of protecting athletes from injury. Injuries created a lot of problems for lifters after retirement; they influenced the rest of their lives. We wanted to avoid that. Over a period of 20 years when I was a national team coach, we had almost no serious injuries to national team lifters.

I cannot stress enough the importance of avoiding injury. To help with that, during training, after a lift our athletes perform exercises that have nothing to do with weightlifting, exercises that will work on certain muscles and movements. Massage is essential, before a training session and after. Every time. In China the rhythm of the training is very important – the volume and intensity are very distinctive.

Human strength won’t be improved much in future; we are almost at the limit. Improvement in weightlifting performance will depend more on science, technique, rehabilitation, and protection from injury.

China had three women disqualified for doping at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The nation has a fairly good record on doping other than that, and does not have to worry about losing quota places, as others do, for Tokyo 2020. What are your views on doping?

Weightlifters can improve without doping. We have shown that. In the 1990s Chinese coaches tried to adopt the Bulgarian system in China and failed, it was not working and they did not know why. They found out at Sydney 2000 – you had to be doping to do it (Bulgaria’s team was sent home in a doping scandal). There was then a great focus in China to avoid doping.

Our administration has always been serious about that. But there are so many coaches, and there will always be an exception; one will try to take a risk. We have different measures to protect athletes, and there is more and more internal testing.

Some say Chinese lifters have a better conversion rate than their international rivals on the clean and jerk. So many others make the first part of the lift but not the second. And China seems to have more athletes who prefer the power jerk/ push jerk than the split jerk (Shi Zhiyong, Lu Xiaojun, Li Dayin for example). Why is this?

If that is true – I don’t have the stats – it will be because we are more precise with technique. We study so much in detail, with the help of CAO Wenyuan’s diagnostic system: the height needed, the displacement front and back, how a lifter can use less energy but perform more. In training we use different exercises for this. In our provincial and national teams around 20% use the power jerk, and we do have quite a lot doing it who perform well at world level. The coach will decide. The coach can see what is best for them, and here again we will benefit from data analysis. The choice of technique may depend on having really good balance, and the coach can see and measure that. In the past a coach would use his or her own eye – now we can use our sophisticated analysis system too. CAO Wenyuan has been doing data analysis for more than 20 years.

Feedback on an athlete’s performance is now available immediately – height trajectory, speed, movement.

Looking back over your coaching career, which medal-winning performance gave you the most pleasure?

The 2004 Olympic Games, when SHI Zhiyong won in 62 kg category. It was a sleepless night! All sorts of feelings on my mind.

You seem happy to share your knowledge – do you want to help other nations?

Weightlifting is a big family. We have a common aim to improve the potential of humans in strength and power. I like to share our system with others, which is why I would like, as a legacy to the sport, to set up an international weightlifting school here at this Training Center, for children from all over the world.

Parts of this interview appeared in the insidethegames 'Big Read' on March 10 IWF President Dr. Tamás Aján and CWA scientist Cao Wenyuan were classmates at the Budapest University of Physical Education

22 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

› 2019 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – NINGBO, CHN TEXT: KORNÉL JANCSÓ PHOTO: GREGOR WINTER

CHINESE HOSTS SWEPT NINGBO CLEAN

L

et’s start with the numbers that tell us so much: 37 internationally registered records were born at the 2019 Asian Championships held in Ningbo, China, 18-28 April. Of senior world records alone no less than 19 were set up by the best representatives of this continent. As regards the distribution of these world records, 13 were set by female lifters and 6 by the men. There was a large choice of records in the other, younger, age groups as well: the men set 17 junior (-20) world records, while one junior women’s record was also established. Youth world records (-17) were equally registered: 4 for boys, 5 for girls.

Going into further details on the Asian Championships’ records, it is worth pointing out that the gentlemen rewrote the world records in two, the women in five bodyweight categories. That is a significant number even if we acknowledge that upon the introduction of the new categories last November “realistic”, “achievable” World Standards were fixed, so the basic records were not pushed too high.

Altogether 226 weightlifters came to Ningbo from 28 Asian countries. To little surprise, host China took the lead in the collection of both records and medals – and in both genders. China won with a huge advantage. In men, CHN took a big share of 16 gold, 8 silver and 2 bronze medals. The following nations, who also won gold, shared the rest of the medals for men: IRI (7, 7, 3), KOR (3, 1, 3), KSA (3, 0, 0), PRK (1, 4, 5).

Among the women, China was similarly dominant with its representatives keeping 28(!) medals at home: 15 in gold, 11 in silver and 2 in bronze colour. The further ranking includes PRK (6, 6, 8), VIE (3, 2, 3), TPE (3, 0, 0), KOR (2, 1, 4), KAZ (1, 1, 1).

The 89kg medallists with Korean YU Dongju being the overall gold medal winner

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 23

› 2019 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – NINGBO, CHN

TIAN Tao, CHN (96kg)

The Chinese tandem pushed PAK Jong Ju, PRK into third p

SAUDI SUCCESS AS AN OPENING

A

lthough not entirely unexpected, yet not “by the book”, the winner of the lightest men’s category, the 55kg, became a lifter from Saudi Arabia: Mansour AL SALEEM. The 31-year-old, whose best achievement was an 8th position at the 2012 Asian Championships and a 6th place at last year’s Asian Games in the lowest category, scored an unambiguous victory in the Ningbo Youngor Gymnasium by winning snatch, clean and jerk and total – the latter by an advantage of 14 kilograms. It should be noted that there was no Chinese competitor in this category.

The Chinese arrived only in the next, 61kg category – but with doubled forces. LI Fabin and QIN Fulin dominated the field and kept the most precious medals on home turf.

Relieved after the successful lift that confirmed YANG Zhe, CHN in the overall winner’s position

24 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

Record record-breaker of the 2019 Asian Championships: Akbar DJURAEV, 19, UZB set nine (!) junior world records in the 109

› 2019 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – NINGBO, CHN

Ali DAVOUDI’s 432kg performance in +109kg was worth the Asian Champion title, but he needs to progress to face the European competition. True that at 20 years he has the time…

place (67kg)

CHEN SET THE TUNE

A

nother tandem of the host nation mounted the stage in 67kg, where CHEN Lijun was the better competitor and delivered the first world record of the men’s Asian challenge. Better to say the first world records, because he did not stop before setting three of those. At first in snatch, lifting 154kg, he “gave a name” to the previous World Standard of 153kg. In clean and jerk CHEN Lijun was again the first to register records: 185kg on the lift and 339kg in total – whereby the 26-year-old Chinese improved his own previous mark of 331kg set in Ashgabat.

It should be noted that the sensation of the category in the “teenage” age group was served by a sixteen-year-old Indian boy, Lalrinnunga JEREMY. Boasting the title of Youth Olympic Champion, JEREMY set youth world records with 134kg in snatch, 163kg in clean and jerk and 291, then 297kg in total.

In the same competition the junior world records were also improved: Adkhamjon ERGASHEV (20) from Uzbekistan modified the records four times in clean and jerk and total.

Speaking of juniors, Iranian Ali DAVOUDI in the +109kg – by the way the absolute winner of this superheavy category in Ningbo – also registered four new junior world records.

All of the above, however, were outscored by the biggest recordbreaker of the 2019 Asian Championships: Akbar DJURAEV. At 19 years of age from Uzbekistan, DJURAEV in the 109kg category set nothing less than (the maximum of) nine (!) junior world records. His splendid performance earned him three silver medals.

CHEN Lijun, CHN in 67kg started the “record factory” and set three world records at one shot

9kg

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 25

MEN 55 KG 1 AL SALEEM M. ABDULRAHIM M

16.03.1988

KSA

54.74 122 140

262

2 MUHAMMAD A. HAZALWAFIE

04.04.1994

MAS

54.90 112 136

248

3 CHONTEY ARLI

01.07.1992

KAZ

54.96 113 133

246

1 LI FABIN

15.01.1993

CHN

60.87 141 171

312

2 QIN FULIN

12.01.1994

CHN

60.96 136 166

302

3 IRAWAN EKO YULI

24.07.1989

INA

60.84 133 166

299

1 CHEN LIJUN

08.02.1993

CHN

66.92 154 185

339

2 FENG LVDONG

23.10.1991

CHN

66.96 152 178

330

3 PAK JONG JU

14.03.1997

PRK

66.98 143 179

322

1 SHI ZHIYONG

10.10.1993

CHN

72.96 168 194

362

2 YUAN CHENGFEI

14.07.1995

CHN

72.81 156 193

349

3 O KANG CHOL

16.09.1993

PRK

72.87 150 188

338

1 LI DAYIN

12.02.1998

CHN

80.87 168 195

363

2 CHOE JON WI

29.06.1993

PRK

80.23 162 197

359

3 ULANOV DENIS

28.10.1993

KAZ

80.95 160 196

356

1 YU DONGJU

19.08.1993

KOR

88.40 160 207

367

2 MIRI ALI

01.08.1995

IRI

89.00 161 205

366

3 YAMAMOTO TOSHIKI

08.09.1991

JPN

88.91 155 203

358

1 TIAN TAO

08.04.1994

CHN

94.81 181 220

401

2 MOUSAVIJARAHI SEYEDAYOOB

21.04.1995

IRI

95.67 166 207

373

3 HAN JUNGHOON

28.08.1990

KOR

95.79 160 206

366

1 BEIRALVAND REZA

01.04.1997

IRI

101.14 173 216

389

2 HOGHOUGHIOSGOUEI AMIR

17.02.1994

IRI

99.34 169 215

384

3 TANAKA TARO

22.01.1994

JPN 101.92 170 194

364

1 YANG ZHE

14.07.1991

CHN 108.57 192 225

417

2 DJURAEV AKBAR

08.10.1999

UZB 108.01 185 225

410

3 HASHEMI ALI

01.11.1991

IRI

108.08 180 225

405

1 DAVOUDI ALI

22.03.1999

IRI

163.99 195 237

432

2 CHEN SHIH-CHIEH

27.11.1989

TPE 157.42 187 235

422

3 TOYCHYYEV HOJAMUHAMMET

16.01.1992

TKM 150.33 187 234

421

61 KG

67 KG

Rio Olympic champion SHI Zhiyong, after giving the goose bumps to the Chinese by missing two attempts in clean and jerk finally saved this one and with it pinned a new world record of 362kg in total (73kg), his 3rd in this competition

73 KG

SHI ALMOST BOMBED, FINALLY CLOSED WITH WORLD RECORD

B

etween two categories the hosts did not have to wait long for another Chinese winner: 73kg SHI Zhiyong snatched two new world records and set one in total. But how!... In the first lift, the 25-year-old Olympic and multiple world champion lifted 165, then in his third attempt 168kg – pushing his own previous best marks into the past. In clean and jerk, however, he was very close to coming to grief: he missed his opening 194kg twice and was on the brink of getting eliminated. Alas, for the third time he managed to hoist the weight and thus not only saved a total but added two kilograms to his own Ashgabat world record total to make it 362kg.

81 KG

89 KG

96 KG

102 KG

109 KG

+109 KG

Host Chinese Association President Mr. ZHOU Jinqian lifting the barbell at the IWF Anti-Doping Outreach (Courtesy CWA)

26 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

› 2019 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – NINGBO, CHN

RECORDS ABOUND IN WOMEN

A

fter a Vietnamese (VUONG Thi Huyen) winner in 45kg the first Chinese woman to win was HOU Zhihui in 49kg. However, the production of world records was launched in 55kg by favour of LIAO Qiuyun. The Chinese, 23, who had been her nation’s best in 2017, lifted the new mark of 128kg in clean and jerk.

In the next category of 59kg, Chinese Taipei’s superstar KUO Hsing-Chun excelled and made the scoreboard announce in a flashing sign “NEW RECORD!” as many as three times. Bronze medallist of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, KUO fixed 106kg in snatch and 137kg in clean and jerk, and in the process modified the total world record twice: to 240, then to 243kg. She was again in excellent shape and increased her previous world record from the 2018 World Championships by 6 kilos.

Following 2013 and 2017, KUO made the Asian hat trick for the third time.

LIAO Qiuyun, CHN set the first world record of the women’s meet in 55kg (128kg clean and jerk)

At full speed, KUO Hsing-Chuo, TPE did not disappoint and pinned 3 world records in the 59kg category

2-times Olympic champion North-Korean RIM Jong Sim starting her world record sequence in 76kg

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 27

› 2019 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – NINGBO, CHN

DENG WEI IS THE BEST

T

he gold medals and the world records were recaptured by the host nation in the 64kg category. 26-yearold megastar DENG Wei, 2016 Olympic champion and by the way 4 times world champion was irresistible once again. Although North-Korean KIM Hyo Sim, DENG’s strongest rival set a short-lived world record of 114kg in snatch, the Chinese quickly overwrote it with 115kg and continued this routine in the clean and jerk: improving her world record from 141 to 142kg and pinning a new total of 257kg.

The next two categories – 71kg and 76kg – were in the hands of DPR Korea. Both “RIMs”, i.e. RIM Un Sim and RIM Jong Sim dominated their respective classes and the latter, double Olympic champion RIM Jong Sim swept the field with new world records in snatch (123kg) and total (first 275, then 278kg).

China’s DENG Wei continues to be supreme. Her road to the gold was studded with records

28 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

› 2019 ASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – NINGBO, CHN

KASHIRINA WILL FACE NEW CHALLENGE

T

he 81kg was won by Korean KANG Yeounhee and the 87kg by Chinese WANG Zhouyu – both women outlifting the opponents by significant vantage.

The Asian Championships of the women, however, could not finish without a last world record and that was offered in the +87kg category – by nobody else but the Chinese competitor, LI Wenwen.

Born in 2000, at just 18 years of age, China’s new prodigy defeated her Olympic champion compatriot MENG Suping pocketing all the three gold medals and reaching a new senior world best mark with 147kg in snatch. That was exactly one kilogram more than what Russia’s Iron Lady Tatiana KASHIRINA had recorded a fortnight earlier in Batumi at the European Championships. We wonder what Tatiana has to say on this partial dethronement…

We might get an answer at the World Championships this fall.

WOMEN 45 KG 1 VUONG THI HUYEN

22.06.1992

VIE

44.66

76

92

168

2 DALABEHERA JHILLI

03.02.1999

IND

44.93

71

91

162

3 DIAZ MARY FLOR

04.05.1999

PHI

44.90

69

89

158

1 HOU ZHIHUI

18.03.1997

CHN

48.63

92 116

208

2 RI SONG GUM

17.10.1997

PRK

48.88

86 114

200

3 ZHANG RONG

31.10.1993

CHN

48.94

88 111

199

1 LIAO QIUYUN

13.07.1995

CHN

54.59

96 128

224

2 DIAZ HIDILYN

20.02.1991

PHI

54.97

94 115

209

3 NABIEVA MUATTAR

02.06.1996

UZB

54.89

91 113

204

1 KUO HSING-CHUN

26.11.1993

TPE

58.98 106 137

243

2 CHEN GUIMING

03.01.1994

CHN

58.57 102 131

233

3 ANDOH MIKIKO

30.09.1992

JPN

58.73

97 128

225

1 DENG WEI

14.02.1993

CHN

63.74 115 142

257

2 KIM HYO SIM

29.03.1994

PRK

63.88 114 135

249

3 CHOE HYO SIM

05.12.1993

PRK

61.08 104 134

238

1 RIM UN SIM

05.07.1996

PRK

65.40 111 130

241

2 NGUYEN THI VAN

16.12.1998

VIE

70.69

95 121

216

3 MITSUKE ERI

30.10.1992

JPN

68.17

97 118

215

1 RIM JONG SIM

05.02.1993

PRK

75.47 123 155

278

2 ZHANG WANGLI

27.05.1996

CHN

72.97 118 146

264

3 KIM SUHYEON

06.02.1995

KOR

73.77 107 137

244

49 KG

55 KG

59 KG

64 KG

71 KG

76 KG

81 KG 1 KANG YEOUNHEE

15.10.1992

KOR

77.13

97 123

220

2 MUNKHJANTSAN ANKHTSETSEG

25.12.1997

MGL

80.94

93 113

206

3 MESHITKHANOVA RAUSHAN

24.11.1995

KAZ

78.84

98 107

205

1 WANG ZHOUYU

13.05.1994

CHN

81.38 125 155

280

2 KIM UN JU

11.11.1989

PRK

86.05 114 152

266

3 AO HUI

20.04.1997

CHN

85.69 110 152

262

1 LI WENWEN

05.03.2000

CHN 149.84 147 175

322

2 MENG SUPING

17.07.1989

CHN 120.19 130 175

305

3 KIM KUK HYANG

20.04.1993

PRK

293

87 KG

+87 KG

LI Wenwen, CHN: she beat MENG Suping and broke the 2-weeks-old world record. Can she challenge KASHIRINA?

98.44 126 167

› PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – GUATEMALA CITY, GUA TEXT: KORNÉL JANCSÓ PHOTO: NAT AREM (HOOKGRIP)

ONLY COLOMBIA TO KEEP ABREAST OF USA

I

t was the 28th edition of the Pan-American Championships taking place between 21 and 28 April in the capital city of Guatemala. The challenge was hallmarked by a special battle between the best of the United States and those of Colombia.

Besides both strongest nations of the continent several representatives of other Pan-American countries also managed to get in a word, but the team classification and the medal table were undoubtedly monopolized by the USA-COL tandem.

In terms of team points the USA scored historic victories in both genders. In the women’s events 10 competitors from the USA collected a mass of 750 points, whereas 9 lifters representing Colombia gathered 658 points. Third in this ranking was Ecuador (550 points/8 competitors).

Further ranked were: GUA (452/10), CUB (437/7), CAN (468/8), MEX (402/6), PER (379/7).

Of the male teams the best was again the US squad who took home the largest trophy with 726 points / 10 lifters on Colombia (661/9) and the host Guatemala (568/10).

Next best teams in succession: MEX (468/7), CAN (468/8), DOM (391/6), CUB (341/5), CHI (298/5).

The Pan-American Confederation Congress elected Enrique Montero (BRA) to General Secretary and Luis Seijas (VEN) to Executive Board Member

30 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

The fact that women are “taking over” – at least in Pan-America – could not be better proven than by the ladies outnumbering the gentlemen (96 – 91). In the medal ranking the outstanding performance of the American women’s team manifested in 25 medals – 12 golds, 7 silvers, 6 bronzes – as opposed to Colombia’s 19 medals (8, 7, 4). On the third step of this podium of medals was standing Ecuador (4, 4, 5) and the rest of the medals were picked up by MEX (3, 1, 4), DOM (2, 6, 1), CHI (1, 2, 0) PER (0, 3, 0), CAN (0, 0, 4), CUB (0, 0, 4), BRA (0, 0, 1) and NCA (0, 0, 1).

The only variety in this monotony was introduced by Colombia which country managed to finish in the leading position of the medal ranking for men winning 10 gold, 5 silver and 8 bronze medals. The USA team pocketed exactly the same number of gold and silver medals but 5 bronze medals less than Colombia. Mexico excelled with 4, 1, 0 and the rest of the medals were shared as follows: CHI (3, 0, 0), CUB (1, 3, 4), ECU (1, 3, 1), VEN (1, 3, 1), DOM (0, 6, 2), GUA (0, 3, 2), BRA (0, 1, 0), HAI (0, 1, 0), PER (0, 0, 3), CAN (0, 0, 3), HON (0, 0, 1).

Local entry Edgar PINEDA collected a bronze in total and a silver in clean and jerk (67kg)

›

PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – GUATEMALA CITY, GUA

Clarence CUMMINGS JR, USA sparkled in 73kg: 5 junior world records

Medals in 81kg

Four medallists in 96kg of which Jhonatan RIVAS MOSQUERA, COL was the best

Arley MENDEZ, CHI was 32 kilograms better than the runner up in 89kg

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 31

›

PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – GUATEMALA CITY, GUA

CONTINENTAL RECORDS ABOUND – CUMMINGS SET WORLD’S AS WELL

I

n a comparison between the Continental Championships certainly one of the key ranking factors is the number of records established. Well, in contrast to the European and the Asian Championships, no senior world records were born in Guatemala City, but a good number of other age-groups’ and Pan-American records were seen.

Here again, we should praise the USA team, of which in particular youth and junior world champion Clarence CUMMINGS JR stood out. Still in his teenage years (turning 19 this coming June), CUMMINGS set up no less than five new junior world records in the men’s 73kg category. These were: 150 and 153kg in snatch; 191kg in clean and jerk (5 kgs short of the senior world record of SHI Zhiyong…) then 340 and 344kg in total. Needless to say all these records are at the same time junior records for Pan-America and his final scores in snatch, jerk and total mark senior continental records as well.

As for the other men’s categories: in 81kg Guatemala City was home to further Pan-American records. In snatch Zacarias BONNAT (DOM) was first to lift 160kg, followed by Colombian Brayan RODALLEGAS who increased this mark to 161kg. The same RODALLEGAS then went on to improve the clean and jerk Pan-American record to 202kg, the total to 363kg.

Originally Cuban, but Chilean-turned Arley MENDEZ, who wrote history in 2017 winning Chile’s first ever world champion title, was true to his class and rewrote the list of records in the 89kg category. He set Pan-American records in snatch and total. The new entries in the books are: 170 and 375kg, respectively. MENDEZ represents a class of his own: he outlifted the second best by 32 kilos.

New Pan-American record in total: 399kg by Wesley KITTS, USA, 109kg category

On the 96kg Jhonatan RIVAS left a great impact.

This young man (20) from Colombia set new PanAmerican records in snatch and in total – just like MENDEZ before him. The new records are 180kg and 386, then 391kg.

Continental records did not fail to highlight the 109kg either: overall Pan-American champion, Wesley Brian KITTS set a new total record with 399kg.

USA doubled in +109kg: Caine WILKES as best, Keiser WITTE as third best among the medallists

32 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

›

PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – GUATEMALA CITY, GUA

The happy medallists of 49kg

Sweeping success by Manuela BERRIO, COL in 45kg

Colombian Rosive SILGADO took 2 gold medals in 59kg

Mercedes PEREZ TIGRERO won the total gold medal for Colombia in 64kg

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 33

›

PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – GUATEMALA CITY, GUA

WOMEN TAKING OVER PAN-AMERICA

A

mong the women no world records fell, however, many of the PanAmerican marks were rewritten in the register – especially the junior ones. Here are the statistics: junior Pan-American records were broken in six out of the ten bodyweight categories, altogether 26 times. As regards the senior records, these were improved in five categories: 19 records in all.

The lightest women started the record-making process: in 45kg Manuela BERRIO (COL), who pocketed all the three gold medals, established a new Pan-American record in clean and jerk of 95kg. Her winning total of 167kg equalled the existing continental maximum.

Another triple-crown-winner, 49kg American Alyssa Lynn RITCHEY set three records of which two in clean and jerk (104, 107kg) and one in total (190kg).

In the 55kg category Jourdan DELACRUZ (USA) “merely” matched the clean and jerk continental record (116kg). In contrast, the next higher class, 59kg, saw a real shower of records thanks to Rosive SILGADO (COL). Her efforts were supported by teammate Maria LOBON, who broke the first record when winning the snatch with 95kg. In the clean and jerk SILGADO took over her baton and went on to claim three Pan-American records – 120, 121 and 125kg – in addition to sharing 2:2 total records with LOBON (210, 215kg – Silgado: 216, 220kg).

In 64kg women continued improving the continental best marks: twice in clean and jerk.

The Pan-American champion of the category, Mercedes PEREZ (COL), who earned the overall title after two silver medals on the two lifts, lifted 128kg – this record only to be outlifted immediately by US lifter Mathlynn SASSER (129kg), who took home the bronze in the total.

The 71kg turned out to be the last competition with new records. The authors were Katherine NYE (USA), 20 years old – meaning that she registered the junior records as well – with her 104, 107 and 110kg in snatch; next was her US colleague Martha Ann ROGERS with her 106kg. Then NYE equalled the Pan-American record in clean and jerk (135kg) and pinned two new marks in total: 241, followed by 245kg.

76kg: Although finishing without any new records and lagging behind her own former records, the continent’s “Princess”, 20-year-old Neisi DAJOMES (ECU), multiple youth and junior world champion emerged victorious from a great fight with Jenny Lyvette ARTHUR (USA) who had to settle for the 3 silver medals.

In 87kg Dominican Crismery SANTANA won with an advantage of 4kg she acquired in the snatch on Maria VALDES from Chile. Both lifted 141kg in clean and jerk so SANTANA kept the lead and took the total gold medal.

In the +87kg category world and Pan-American champion Sarah Elizabeth ROBLES (USA) did not panic when being cornered in the snatch. As always, the strongest American woman could rely on her powerful clean and jerk, and rightly she used her supremacy to collect the remaining two gold medals for a final victory.

USA-USA-COL-MEX medal winners in 71kg

34 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

Ecuador’s splendid Neisi DAJOMES never to disappoint her supporters (76kg)

Overall winner of the 87kg: Crismery SANTANA, DOM

The mighty world and Pan-American champion of the +87kg: Sarah ROBLES, USA

›

PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – GUATEMALA CITY, GUA

WOMEN

MEN

45 KG

55 KG

1 BERRIO Z. M.A ANDREA

18.06.2000

COL

44.20

72

95

167

1 GARCIA PEREZ JAIRO LUIS

02.08.2000

COL

54.95 108 135

243

2 CUEVA U. F. FRANCESCA

04.02.1998

PER

44.70

69

90

159

2 ICAL S. JOSE FERNANDO

16.05.1999

GUA

54.75

215

143

- JOSEPH EDOUARD

24.12.1989

HAI

55.00 100

---

---

3 BENAVIDES Z. M. DEL CISNE

06.04.1996

ECU

44.85

68

75

49 KG 1 RITCHEY ALYSSA LYNN

95 120

61 KG 14.04.1989

USA

49.00

83 107

190

1 VAZQUEZ MENDEZ ANTONIO

12.08.1993

MEX

60.85 118 164

282

19.04.1995

DOM

60.75 123 158

281

10.02.1998

ECU

61.00 124 148

272

MEX

66.50 134 170

304

2 PIRON C. B. ELIZABETH

27.02.1995

DOM

48.80

82 102

184

2 GARCIA B. LUIS ALBERTO

3 KING MORGHAN WHITNEY

08.10.1985

USA

48.85

78 102

180

3 ZURITA V. CRISTHIAN DAVID

1 DELACRUZ J. ELIZABETH

20.05.1998

USA

54.25

91 116

207

1 MUNOZ M. J. ANTONIO

10.11.1995

2 ESCOBAR G. M. ALEXANDRA

17.07.1980

ECU

54.85

90 113

203

2 OSORIO H. JOSE LUIS

04.03.2000

COL

65.10 135 160

295

202

3 PINEDA ZETA E. ISMAEL

17.08.1997

GUA

65.15 125 165

291

55 KG

3 LOPEZ F. ANA GABRIELA

67 KG

22.09.1994

MEX

54.65

92 110

59 KG

73 KG

1 SILGADO A. ROSIVE ANDREA

30.06.1995

COL

58.85

95 125

220

1 CUMMINGS JR CLARENCE

06.06.2000

USA

72.95 153 191

344

2 LOBON V. MARIA CAMILA

30.09.1995

COL

58.75

95 120

215

2 MOSQUERA L. LUIS JAVIER

27.03.1995

COL

72.50 147 175

322

3 LUCERO JESSICA MARIE

26.09.1989

USA

58.90

94 113

207

3 MENA M. JOSE GAVINO

08.03.1994

COL

72.60 142 177

319

64 KG

81 KG COL

63.95 101 128

229

1 RODALLEGAS C. B. SANTIAGO

15.11.1997

COL

80.90 161 202

363

14.06.1997

COL

63.60 102 125

227

2 BONNAT MICHEL ZACARIAS

27.02.1996

DOM

80.80 160 191

351

25.12.1996

USA

63.65

227

3 SOLIS A. JUAN FELIPE

05.03.1999

COL

81.00 155 196

351

1 PEREZ T. MERCEDES ISABEL

07.08.1987

2 LLAMOSA M. NATHALIA 3 SASSER M. LANGTOR

98 129

71 KG

89 KG

1 VIBERT K. ELIZABETH

05.01.1999

USA

70.15 110 135

245

1 MENDEZ PEREZ ARLEY

31.12.1993

CHI

88.75 170 205

375

2 ROGERS MARTHA ANN

23.08.1995

USA

70.40 106 132

238

2 CANTRELL JORDAN WARREN

16.08.1996

USA

89.00 153 190

343

3 ESCOBAR A. H. ANDREA

07.03.1999

COL

70.50

219

3 ANDICA A. Y. ALEXANDER

26.08.1987

COL

81.70 153 185

338

COL

95.45 180 211

391

98 121

76 KG

96 KG ECU

76.00 109 136

245

1 RIVAS M. JHONATAN

11.07.1998

11.12.1993

USA

75.80 108 135

243

2 LUNA MARIN ANGEL JOSE

13.10.1994

VEN

90.95 162 210

372

20.07.1995

CAN

75.25

228

3 SANTAVY BOADY ROBERT

22.05.1997

CAN

95.10 169 201

370

1 DAJOMES B. NEISI PATRICIA

12.05.1998

2 ARTHUR JENNY LYVETTE 3 NGARLEM KRISTEL

95 133

81 KG

102 KG

1 TORRES WONG ANACARMEN

27.11.1995

MEX

79.80 102 131

233

1 OSORIO D. ANTOINNE

13.10.1993

USA 102.00 159 205

364

2 MINA TORRES D. LUCIA

02.04.1998

ECU

80.75 103 129

232

2 FERRIN A. P. ALEXANDER

20.10.1995

ECU

98.70 155 196

351

3 VIERA E. HERNAN MOISES

16.01.1993

PER 101.45 150 195

345

3 CESAR HURTADO TAILA

28.07.1999

CUB

78.65

93 121

214

1 SANTANA P. C. DOMINGA

20.04.1995

DOM

86.75 112 141

253

1 KITTS WESLEY BRIAN

22.05.1990

USA 108.70 176 223

399

2 VALDES P. M. FERNANDA

17.03.1992

CHI

86.70 108 141

249

2 GONZALEZ B. J. ABRAHAN

22.04.1991

VEN 107.65 177 205

382

3 SALAZAR A. T. YAJAIRA

09.08.1997

ECU

83.00 105 138

243

3 COLUMBIE JUAN

24.01.1995

CUB 107.00 174 206

380

1 ROBLES SARAH ELIZABETH

01.08.1988

USA 144.35 124 155

279

1 WILKES CAINE MORGAN

10.07.1987

USA 145.95 182 219

401

2 SALADIN T. V. ESTELA

21.05.1992

DOM 130.30 123 147

270

2 LAURET R. LUIS MANUEL

20.01.1997

CUB 118.00 183 217

400

3 MASCORRO O. T. GUADALUPE

24.11.1988

MEX 109.75 120 144

264

3 WITTE KEISER ANDREW

15.03.1995

USA 141.60 175 212

387

87 KG

109 KG

+109 KG

+87 KG

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 35

› 2019 AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – CAIRO, EGY TEXT: TÍMEA HORVÁTH PHOTO: EGYPTIAN FEDERATION

EGYPT MASSIVELY DOMINANT ON HOME SOIL BUT 11 NATIONS SHARE MEDALS

T

he 2019 African Senior Weightlifting Qualification Championships, an event of crucial importance for the Continent regarding 2020 Olympic qualification, was hosted by the capital of Egypt, Cairo between 23 and 29 April 2019. Egypt is undoubtedly the Continent’s leading nation – not only in terms of success through its competitors but also the most experienced as a host to major events. Last year, for instance, they organised the Youth and Junior African Championships. Before the competitions the Weightlifting Federation of Africa (WFA) held its Executive Board meeting and Congress. During the event WFA conducted Educational Seminars, including Anti-Doping, Technical Officials’ and Coaching Seminars.

Altogether 112 athletes from 14 African Member Federations competed for the title of “African Champion” and – even more importantly - for the valuable qualification points with a view to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Out of the 14 countries 12 competed with both male and female teams. No bodyweight category remained void: each had a minimum of one lifter in both genders. Naturally, the Olympic bodyweight categories attracted more participants.

After the lowest women’s category, 45kg, which saw only two lifters, Egypt could celebrate home success on the first day. Heba AHMED claimed gold at the Cairo Stadium in the women’s 49 kilogram competition. Second place went to Roilya Hanitra RANAIVOSOA from Mauritius, while Ghana celebrated a bronze medal by Winnifred NTUMI. Next day the women’s competitions brought the victory for Nigerian athletes. Nigeria took the gold both in 55 kilograms and 59 kilograms. Men’s competitions were dominated by Tunisian and Libyan weightlifters who won several medals in 3 bodyweight categories. The home crowd did not remain without local triumph, as Egyptian Ahmed SAAD claimed gold medal in men’s 67 kg with a total of 302 kg. He finished ahead of Madagascar’s Tojonirina Alain ANDRIATSITOHAINA with only 2 kg. Ehsan SHALABI from Libya could step on the podium’s third stage.

WFA and Egyptian Federation leaders awarded the Best Lifter trophy to Sara AHMED, Egypt, 76kg African champion

36 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

The winning team of the Championships: Egypt

Women’s 64 kg ended with the success of North African countries; first two places went to Egypt, while the bronze medal was taken by Chaima RAHMOUNI from Tunisia.

The struggle between the two home athletes was tight in the clean and jerk, Esraa RASHED was one kilogram behind her team mate, Neama FAHMI, however, RASHED won the overall title with her good result in snatch.

The host nation enjoyed further great results, as Mohamed Ihab MAHMOUD, bronze medallist in Rio 2016 Olympic Games took the gold in the men’s 81 kg category which was the most populous event. Ramzi BAHLOUL from Tunisia placed second, whilst Mahmoud’s fellow member from Egypt, Ahmed ALSAYED became third.

Another Egyptian Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist, Sara Mohamed AHMED secured her gold medal with 6 good lifts, 66 kg (!) ahead of Alison SUNEE from Mauritius and 67 kg on Egypt’s Fatma AHMED in the women’s 76 kg bodyweight category. In 81 kg, Nigeria added a third gold medal to the collection, thanks to the great result of Bilikis Abiodun OTUNLA. Local athlete, Ahmed ALI achieved first place in the men’s 89 kg at the Cairo Stadium. He beat Tunisian Wajih TLILI and Christian AMOAH from Ghana, who acquired Ghana’s second bronze medal at this Championships.

All in all, Egypt showed an outstanding performance on home soil. However, it is great to mention that as many as 11 countries have won a medal from the participating 14 at the African Senior Weightlifting Championships.

The medallists of 45kg

Marie RANAIVOSOA, MRI, 49kg

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 37

› 2019 AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – CAIRO, EGY

49kg winner: Heba Saleh AHMED, EGY

The 67kg podium: EGY-MAD-LBA

Mona PRETORIUS, RSA in 64kg

Sara AHMED, EGY was supreme once again

38 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

Kyle PIERCE as Ghana’s coach

› 2019 AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – CAIRO, EGY

Another Egyptian victory in 81kg: Mohamed MAHMOUD

The 55kg podium

Karem BEN HNIA, TUN remains the best in 73kg

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 39

› 2019 AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – CAIRO, EGY WOMEN

MEN

45 KG

55 KG

1 RANDAFIARISON ROSINA

29.12.1999

MAD

44.00

70

80

150

1 ANDRIANTSITOHAINA E. HERMAN

21.07.1991

MAD

54.90 102 120

222

2 FAJRESLAM MAHA

04.07.2003

MAR

44.47

50

62

112

2 HARFI ISSAM

02.12.1997

MAR

54.40

90 100

190

TUN

59.87 116 142

258

49 KG

61 KG

1 AHMED H. SALEH MAHMOUD

03.07.1996

EGY

48.96

73

95

168

1 BOUHIJBHA AMINE

28.02.1996

2 RANAIVOSOA M. H. ROILYA

14.11.1990

MRI

48.66

71

93

164

2 BOUSHEEHAH ABDULLAH

12.01.1992

LBA

60.85 108 136

244

124

3 BEN HADJ MOHAMED AZIZ

14.01.2002

TUN

60.85 102 125

227

3 NTUMI WINNIFRED

28.09.2002

GHA

47.76

57

67

55 KG

67 KG

1 AMALAHA CHIKA JOY

28.10.1997

NGR

54.63

95 110

205

1 SAAD AHMED A. MOHAMED

01.11.1986

EGY

66.84 134 168

302

2 LANDOULSI NOUHA

05.05.1998

TUN

54.69

92 107

199

2 ANDRIATSITOHAINA T. ALAIN

26.02.1995

MAD

65.95 133 167

300

3 IBRAHIM B. E. G. MOHAMED

27.06.1995

EGY

54.89

85 100

185

3 SHALABI EHSAN ALI ELHADI

22.03.1997

LBA

66.90 126 155

281

1 FEDELIS CHINEYE SILVER

28.10.1993

NGR

58.66

88 115

203

1 BEN HNIA KAREM

13.11.1994

TUN

70.20 152 186

338

2 TALJAARD JOHANNI

19.08.1984

RSA

58.78

83 102

185

2 IBRAHIM M. W. SHAABAN

01.12.1996

EGY

72.95 145 185

330

3 BENMILOUD MERYEM NADA

26.09.1997

ALG

58.27

70

160

3 TUBAL OMER MARAJ S.

10.01.1994

LBA

72.92 141 166

307

59 KG

73 KG

90

64 KG

81 KG

1 RASHED ESRAA E. AHMED

21.11.1998

EGY

63.20

98 110

208

1 MAHMOUD M. IHAB Y. AHMED

21.11.1989

EGY

80.70 160 191

351

2 SAID NEAMA SAID FAHMI

15.11.2002

EGY

61.70

91 111

202

2 BAHLOUL RAMZI

18.10.1989

TUN

80.10 151 180

331

3 RAHMOUNI CHAIMA

25.03.2001

TUN

60.93

89 110

19

3 ELSAYED AHMED

10.07.1997

EGY

79.80 144 185

329

71 KG 1 MAHMOUD RANIA M. EZZAT

89 KG 10.09.2001

EGY

69.44

97 122

219

1 ALI AHMED SAYED ASHOUR

10.01.1999

EGY

88.85 163 200

363

07.03.1999

TUN

88.10 149 173

322

25.07.1999

GHA

86.60 148 172

320

2 LAABIDI YOSRA

02.08.1998

TUN

64.17

81 105

186

2 TLILI WAJIH

3 CHERRARA IKRAM

06.06.1998

ALG

67.88

82 101

183

3 AMOAH CHRISTIAN

76 KG

96 KG

1 AHMED S. S. E. MOHAMED

01.01.1998

EGY

74.38 112 145

257

1 MAHMOUD SELIM MOHAMED

29.12.1997

EGY

94.15 170 200

370

2 SUNEE A. MARIE LEROY

20.07.1999

MRI

73.35

86 105

191

2 ABDALLA RAGAB A. SAAD A.

04.03.1991

EGY

94.75 161 201

362

3 AHMED FATMA M. SADEK

07.07.2003

EGY

73.25

85 105

190

3 MESSAOUI SADDAM

24.07.1991

ALG

94.50 161 193

354

22.01.2001

MAR

98.30 123 145

268

81 KG

102 KG

1 OTUNLA BILIKIS ABIODUN

12.06.1994

NGR

76.70

93 125

218

2 FARAG SALMA A. M. AWAD

11.09.2002

EGY

77.68

90 111

201

3 HIRECH B. FATIMA ZOHRA

22.08.2000

ALG

79.95

86 106

192

87 KG

1 EZZOHARI BADREDDINE

109 KG

1 HUSSEIN S. SAID H. AHMED

20.09.1995

EGY

83.09 103 125

228

1 MOHAMED G. A. FARHAN

01.09.1985

EGY 107.10 165 202

367

2 MEUKEUGNI N. CLEMENTINE

01.10.1990

CMR

86.46

85 115

200

2 ABDELAZIZ M. ABDELRAHMAN M

07.04.1998

EGY 108.70 160 207

367

3 BEN MOUSSA AMENI

24.03.1999

TUN

84.87

86 100

186

3 BACHA AYMEN

26.10.1999

TUN 106.50 173 193

366

+109 KG

+87 KG 1 ABBAS HALIMA A SEDKY

05.05.1995

EGY 136.70 120 145

265

1 BIDANI WALID

11.06.1994

ALG 147.20 187 226

413

2 VALAYDON SHALINEE

13.04.1986

MRI 114.41

210

2 GABER AHMED M. A. MOHAMED

18.01.1996

EGY 136.80 175 230

405

3 BERTALI ZAKARIA

07.10.1985

MAR 109.20 130 160

290

40 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

95 115

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 41

› 2018 IWF LIFTERS OF THE YEAR PHOTO: JÓZSEF SZAKA

2018 IWF LIFTERS OF THE YEAR ENCORE BY LIDIA AND LASHA

W

ORLD WEIGHTLIFTING had its annual online vote for the 2018 Lifters of the Year titles. Just like in the year before, Lidia VALENTIN and Lasha TALAKHADZE won the hearts of the fans and voters.

The awarding ceremony of the Jenő Boskovics Lifter of the Year 2018 trophies will take place on 20 May 2019 in Kobuleti, Georgia. We shall report in our next issue.

Lidia VALENTIN, ESP

42 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

Lasha TALAKHADZE, GEO

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 43

› IWF JWC PREVIEW TEXT: ATTILA ÁDÁMFI, MÁTYÁS LENCSÉR

JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN FIJI IS READY TO MAKE HISTORY

T

his year’s Junior World Championships is the first time an IWF Junior World Championship is taking place on a Pacific island. Fiji is not unknown to the weightlifting Family, as they already successfully hosted Oceania Championships in 2004, 2010 and 2016. During our Technical visit, we had the privilege to meet with various stakeholders and saw the progress made to host an event of this calibre.

The JWC competition venue, the FMF Gymnasium is prepared to host the Championships and the warmup areas, while the National Fitness Centre will serve as the training venue, both prepared accordingly by the Fiji Sports Council. The venues are in the same area, just a short walk away from each other. Also, the distance between the venues and the various hotels is just about 10 minutes providing ideal conditions for the athletes to perform at their best - especially considering that this event is a significant milestone in the Olympic Qualification, on the “Road to Tokyo 2020”. Being a Gold Level Qualification Event, it is important to highlight that the sports equipment is provided by the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games supplier, the Chinese ZKC company.

The local Organizing Committee showed unprecedented cooperation in engaging the different stakeholders in organizing this event. We were impressed by the collaboration that is being shown by the whole of Government, Fiji Sports Council, Fiji National Sports Commission, ONOC, FASANOC, ORADO, Media Partners (especially Fiji TV), sponsors in delivering this Championships.

We are grateful to Dr. Robin MITCHELL, the Chair of the Organising Committee and to Mr. Atma MAHARAJ, President of Weightlifting Fiji for the tireless work they are putting into delivering this Junior World Championships.

About 300 athletes from more than 50 countries are expected to participate at the 2019 IWF Junior World Championships as follows:

• • • • •

Africa: 4 MFs, Asia: 13 MFs Europe: 18 MFs Oceania: 6 MFs Pan America: 10 MFs

We are also impressed by the support of Fiji’s people, and we are confident that every delegation will enjoy warm hospitality in Suva!

44 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

Technical visit by the IWF Director General and Competition Manager. Far left: Mr. Robin MITCHELL, ANOC President, Chair of the OC

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 45

46 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

› WOMEN’S PAGE TEXT: URSULA GARZA PAPANDREA, IWF VICE PRESIDENT, IWF CHAIR OF WOMEN’S COMMISSION, USA WEIGHTLIFTING PRESIDENT

GENDER EQUALITY IN FOREFRONT OF IOC

O

n May 12, 2019 the 4th International Federations Gender Equality Forum was held in Lausanne, and with the support of the International Weightlifting Federation and President Aján, I was able to participate along with 49 other women in leadership positions of their international federations. This year’s topics included funding allocations, mechanisms to increase the pipeline of women for decision-making positions, governance, tracking and monitoring, coaches and technical officials at the Games and the collaboration between IFs, National Federations and National Olympic Committees.

These were the main formal topics discussed at the Forum but there was also quite a bit of valuable informal exchanges. The Forum was organized by the International Olympic Committee in partnership with the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and, for the first time, the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF) was also in attendance.

The focus of my participation was on the Governance Leadership Pipeline (Recommendation 18), methods and strategic plans for Implementing the Gender Equality Recommendations and Linking with National Sporting Federations. I selected these topics because these are some of the areas which the IWF Women’s Commission needs to address to encourage long term and sustainable progress in our sport.

Kit McConnell, the IOC Sports Director was also in attendance and I was able to have fruitful discussion with him as well. The IOC leadership has made it clear that the gender equality project is at the forefront of their concerns. I will work with the IWF Women’s Commission to create and submit a long term strategic plan for increasing specifically the leadership pipeline and leadership positions worldwide as there is a notable deficiency in comparison with many other sports. I look forward to presenting the plan and its metrics in Thailand later this year.

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 47

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The real power of athletes WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING / 49

RAISING THE BAR FOR 60 YEARS

50 / WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING

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