Archive from 2012

WADA Media Symposium

WADA held a Media Symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland on 7 February where the IWF was represented by Lilla Rozgonyi, IWF Communication Assistant. The Hon. John Fahey, WADA President held a lecture entitled “WADA in 2012”. David Howman, WADA Director General explained “The challenges facing anti-doping in 2012 and how WADA will respond to those challenges”. Olivier Niggli, WADA Legal Counsel presented “The Code Review Process”. All lectures can be downloaded by following the

IWF Technical Visit in Almaty

IWF Competition Director, Attila Adamfi recently paid a visit to the headquarters of the Kazakh Weightlifting Federation in order to discuss several details in regard to the 2014 IWF World Championships to be organized in Astana. The Federation was represented by Mrs. Gapura Turlykhanova, Vice President, Mr. Alexei Ni, Executive Board Member and Head Coach and Mr. Tapsir Mendikhan, General Secretary. Attila Adamfi visited Almaty as Member of the National Bandy Team of Hungary participating on the XXXII. Bandy World Championships, where he was also re-elected as Vice President of the Federation of International Bandy (FIB) by the FIB

IWF Technical Visit in Almaty

IWF Competition Director, Attila Adamfi recently paid a visit to the headquarters of the Kazakh Weightlifting Federation in order to discuss several details in regard to the 2014 IWF World Championships to be organized in Astana. The Federation was represented by Mrs. Gapura Turlykhanova, Vice President, Mr. Alexei Ni, Executive Board Member and Head Coach and Mr. Tapsir Mendikhan, General Secretary. Attila Adamfi visited Almaty as Member of the National Bandy Team of Hungary participating on the XXXII. Bandy World Championships, where he was also re-elected as Vice President of the Federation of International Bandy (FIB) by the FIB

The Hellenic Weightlifting Federation has high ambitions

The Hellenic Weightlifting Federation (HWF) President Pyrros Dimas, three times Olympic Champion and bronze medallist made an official visit to the IWF Secretariat with Tasos Papachristou Communication Director in order to discuss cooperation opportunities between the two organizations. Pyrros Dimas, with his achievements highly contributes to the success of the IWF Anti-Doping Campaign launched during the 2011 IWF World Weightlifting Championships Paris, France. With his knowledge and outstanding personality he is one of the greatest role model for the grassroots generation. As an outstanding international event in the Calendar, the Hellenic Weightlifting Federation has expressed its intention to organize an IWF Grand Prix called Olympus Tournament in the course of the year. Greek weightlifting has always played a strong and active role on the international scene and with this renewal they wish to enter a new era and concentrate all their efforts to bring back the shining glory and fame of its past success. Yannis Sgouros, Governor of Attica Region, previous IWF General Secretary and Tasos Papachristou, Vice-President of the HWF will help to put into place projects of development to further consolidate and strengthen weightlifting activity in the

Junior World Championships and Pan American Olympic Qualification Event TIMETABLE

We re pleased to inform you that the Timetable of the forthcoming Junior World Championships and Pan American Olympic Qualification Event to be held in Antigua Guatemala in May 2012 is already available. Click here to download. Further documents to be published soon. Les informamos con mucho placer que el Programa del Campeonato Mundial Juvenil y Evento Clasificatorio Preolímpico que será celebrado en Antigua Guatemala en Mayo de 2012 ya esta disponible. Clique aquí para descargar. Los documentos adicionales serán accesibles

Godelli’s unique medal collection

Moment of the Year by EBSNIK DIZDARI Look at this boy! In fact, he is a World Champion. Daniel Godelli, was born in 1992 in Peqin, a small town in Central Albania with only 9.000 inhabitants. I think it is not easy to find such a small town where a World Champion has been grown up. He is only 19 years old, but already became World Champion in 2011, at the Junior World Championships held in Penang, Malaysia. His coach is Ali Lundraxhiu. Meanwhile, still in 2011, a film dedicated to him, (realized by journalist Ahmet Shqarri and directed by Ylli Pepo) won an Award at the World Sports Cinema Festival held in Milan. He won the gold medal in Penang just right after the film received the Award. Until now Albania won four gold medals ever at World Championships (among all sports) and all of them were won in weightlifting sport: Ymer Pampuri in 1972 at the WWC, Erkand Qerimaj in 2006 and 2007 and Daniel Godelli in 2011 at the JWC. With three silver medals won in 2010 and two silver and a gold medal won in 2011, Godelli is the only Albanian athlete of all time who gained six medals at World Championships. In Penang, the Albanian team obtained the fifth place in the team classification among 29 countries, following Iran, Russia, China and Ecuador. For a country with only three million inhabitants it was a unique case. The Albanian government already understood that weightlifting was very important for the young people in the country and also for the Albanian sport in general. The government gives continuous financial support to the athletes, as well as providing the champions with prizes what was unimaginable some years ago. It is important to know, that even today; Albania is a country full of endless financial problems. At the moment Albania has only two medal winners at World Championships: Ymer Pampuri was World Champion in 1972 and Ilir Suli, silver medallist. At the 2011 IWF World Championships Paris, Albania won the first medal among women, Romela Begaj in category 58 kg won bronze medal in snatch (100 kg). The enthusiastic President of the Albanian Weightlifting Federation and Member of the Executive Board of the IWF, Mr. Esat Ademi is the first Albanian sports official who has ever obtained such an important international position. (Until now, Albania has gained 19 medals at World Championships. Moreover the Albanian athletes gained 36 medals at European Senior Championships, 41 medals at European Junior Championships and 36 medals at European Youth Championships. 75 percent of these medals were won in the last 7-8 years.) Now the main goal for the country is to get an Olympic medal. It is an interesting coincidence that in 2012 it is the 40th anniversary of the Munich Olympic Games where Ymer Pampuri broke the Olympic record (press) and became World Champion. It is the 20th anniversary of Pirro Dimas' (Pyrros Dimas) first Olympic Gold medal, already under the Greek flag, but he is originally from the Albanian city Himara and then grew up in Tirana. A few famous athletes became World Champions or/and Olympic medal winners under the flag of Greece, but were born and practicing weightlifting for a while in Albania, such as: Pirro Dimas (Pyrros Dimas), Luan Shabani (Leonidas Sabanis), Jorgo Xhelili (Yorgos Tzelilis), Leonidha Goga (Leonidas Kokas), Viktor Mitro (Viktor Mitrou). So, can we say that Albania has a weightlifting school? Maybe. What we can confirm without doubt is that the Albanian champions of nowadays intend to create a glory of their country. We wish that 2012 bring them the big explosion… EBSNIK DIZDARI, Shqiptar Editor-in-Chief