News

The European Championships of 2008 for Men and Women are being run in Lignano Sabbiadoro, a famous Italian seaside resort. This is at the same time the last Olympic qualification opportunity for the Continent’s weightlifters.

In the men’s categories altogether 163 lifters were entered from 36 countries. The women’s fields are composed of 108 athletes representing 27 European nations. A number of Olympic, senior and junior world champions are taking part.
The keenest interest among the stars was focused on triple Olympic champion Turkish Halil MUTLU. A champion of Atlanta, Sydney and Athens, MUTLU has not been in competition since 2005, yet he decided to get ready for Beijing and become four-times Olympic champion – the first in the history of weightlifting.
The lack of competition involvement for several years has left its mark on MUTLU’s performance: he only succeeded with one attempt each in both the snatch and the clean and jerk. In total he made 269kg (his own world record being 305kg) and heavier bodyweight ranked him second behind Moldavian Igor BOUR.

In the women’s lightest category we welcomed another Turkish Olympic champion, Nurcan TAYLAN. She managed to win the 48kg with a 196kg result.

European winners – Women:

48kg    TAYLAN Nurcan (TUR)                   196kg (87, 109)
53kg    TROTSENKO Natalya (UKR)             197kg (88, 109)
58kg    KLEJNOWSKA Aleksandra (POL)        212kg (91, 121)
63kg    DALUZYAN Meline (ARM)                 235kg (107, 128)
69kg    AVDALYAN Nazik (ARM)                  242kg (106, 136)
75kg    ZABOLOTNAYA Natalya (RUS)          264kg (123, 141)

Men:

56kg    BOUR Igor (MDA)                           269kg (118, 151)
62kg    PETROSYAN Sergei (RUS)                302kg (135, 167)
69kg    MARTIROSYAN Tigran (ARM)            346kg (158, 188)

The European Championships finish on Sunday, 20 April 2008. View RESULTS