Archive from 2014

First Chinese Gold and second for PRK

There was drama behind the scenes in the first women’s medal event, and a second gold medal for PRK on an entertaining second day of the IWF World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tan Yayun, from China, made it six out of six in the World Championships with a clean sweep in the women’s 48kg – a repeat of her feat in Poland last year. Tan, who will be 22 later this month, lifted 109kg with her final attempt in the clean-and-jerk. That gave her a 194kg total, 5kg ahead of a tearful Sibel Ozkan Konak (Turkey) and Panida Khamsri (Thailand), who finished second and third overall. It was heartbreaking for Ozkan Konak, 26, who now has seven silver medals and no golds in the Olympic Games, IWF World Championships, European Championships and Mediterranean Games. She was only 1kg behind after the snatch and was confident of a good total, as she has clean-and-jerked 115kg in training. But she made only 105kg because of an injury. In the break between the snatch and the clean-and-jerk, Ozkan Konak was sitting and stretching when suddenly she had muscle spasms in her quadriceps, first in her right leg, then the left. She had ice treatment but the spasms continued. “I was desperate. I thought I would have to withdraw,” she said. Ozkan Konak was unable to do any warm-ups and went straight from her 84kg snatch to lifting 103kg in the clean-and-jerk. She improved that by 2kg but failed with her last lift, and was in tears after the medal ceremony. There was home disappointment when Kazakhstan’s Margarita Yelisseyeva failed with all three snatch attempts and withdrew. In the men’s 62kg three lifters failed to register a total. The easy winner was Kim Un Guk, who had won overall gold in the 2010 World Championships, and silver in 2011 and 2013 – as well as the Olympic title in 2012. This was the first time he won all three golds at the IWF World Championships. Kim made 142kg in the snatch, winning by 1kg from the overall runner-up Eko Irawan from Indonesia, and the brilliant young Colombian Luis Javier Mosquera Lozano. The 19-year old won bronze in the snatch and was fourth overall. He has set himself a daunting programme next year of competing in the Youth World Championships in Lima, Peru, the Pan-American Games in Toronto, and the IWF World Championships in Houston, Texas. China’s Ding Jianjun was beaten into third place by Irawan, so for the first time since 1998 China was not placed in the top two overall. Ding said, “PRK is the strongest rival to China. They have many perfect lifters. There was an era when China dominated but now they are the best. The only way we can respond is by training, training and more

VIE Junior World Records and PRK Victory on the 1st day

Om Yun Chol had to do what only four other weightlifters have ever legally done - lift more than three times his own bodyweight - to win his latest title. In the first medal event of the 2014 IWF World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan – the men’s 56kg - Om was not at his best until his last lift. He failed with his first attempts in the snatch (124kg) and the clean-and-jerk (162kg). He was tired after winning at the Asian Games in late September. The fact that those championships had been hosted by South Korea made all the difference. “I was so stressed for that gold medal,” said a surprisingly talkative Om after his victory. “Our country and South Korea are divided, and hostile. Our Supreme Leader [Kim Jong-un] told us before we left that we were going into battle, and we had to win.” Om won in Incheon, with a world record clean-and-jerk of 170kg. He was afraid that he would not be strong enough in Almaty and he looked tense. He appeared to enjoy talking to the media more than competing. Om's snatch total of 128kg was not enough for a place on the podium in that contest. He then failed with his first attempt in the clean- and-jerk, too. He looked beaten, with two great Chinese rivals ahead of him, and an even tougher opponent in Kim Tuan Thach, from Vietnam. Thach is 20, in his last year as a junior. He broke two junior world records- snatch and overall - in setting a total of 296kg, which looked good enough. Thach had finished second in Incheon and this was an improvement of 2kg on his total there, an outstanding effort. Li Fabin, the 2011 junior world champion from China, was in second place after the snatch but failed with his last two clean-and-jerk efforts and fell to fourth place. Long Qingquan, the 2008 Olympic champion, also failed with his last two clean-and-jerks at 163kg, leaving Thach in first place. Om weighed four grammes lighter than Thach and needed to match his 296kg total to win. He had to increase his previous lift by 6kg, to 168kg, just over three times his own weight. He made the lift, winning the clean-and-jerk gold, the overall title, and the deep respect of his rivals. He is the reigning Asian, World and Olympic champion and has made a triple-bodyweight lift in all three contests. Om said afterwards, “I am going to protect my titles. I will win in the 2016 Olympics.” Thach was disappointed to lose so narrowly, but delighted with his records and full of praise for the victory. “He is so good at the clean-and-jerk. I admire him so much,” said Thach. Om said, “I was so afraid of losing because I put so much effort into winning at the Asian Games only a few weeks ago. “In the 2012 Olympics I beat Mr Wu from China [Wu Jingbiao] and in 2013 I beat Mr Long from China, who is sitting here beside me [bronze medallist Long Qingquan]. China is such a big country, it has so many weightlifters, so many opportunities to win, and we are a much smaller country – but I have beaten them and I will beat them again. I will protect my gold medals.” When asked what his favorite food was, Om gave a straightforward answer. “I like only the Korean national dishes, especially kimchi [fermented vegetables].” And how good could he become? What are his best lifts in training, in the snatch and the clean-and-jerk. “I’m not telling you,” he smiled. “That’s

LIVE UPDATES FROM ALMATY

A few hours before the first medal session of the 2014 IWF World Championships in Almaty, Dr. Tamas Ajan spoke of a bright future for the sport and praised the impressive efforts of the host nation, Kazakhstan, in promoting and developing weightlifting. Dr Ajan, President of the IWF since 2000, highlighted two key developments that will help to change the image of weightlifting, a sport that is growing rapidly worldwide. First, he mentioned the new logo that was accepted by the IWF Congress on Friday. The new look will help the IWF to promote its brand and to enhance its corporate identity. Next he praised the film, Lift the World, which was shown for the first time to an audience of athletes, coaches, officials and journalists on Friday night in Almaty. “This could be a historical moment for us,” said Dr. Ajan. “This film can encourage more and more young people to take up weightlifting.” The uplifting 50-minute film documents the hopes, aspirations and achievements of weightlifters of all ages across four continents. It features 10-year-olds in Mexico, teenagers from Cameroon and Tunisia, and revealing at-home interviews with World and Olympic champions Dmitry Klokov and Lu Xiaojun, in Russia and China. The film was funded by the IWF to promote the sport and will be shown on television stations around the world before, eventually, being made freely available on YouTube. Lift the World was rapturously received by a number of Olympic medallists, among them the 3 times Olympic Champion Pyrros Dimas, from Greece. The various comments from the audience included, “A magnificent production. If this doesn’t sell weightlifting, nothing will. There are movies with soul and movies without soul. This movie has soul.” Another important change agreed by the forward-thinking IWF was the use of video technology to help judges with their decision-making. The move was promoted by Sam Coffa, vice-president of the IWF and chairman of the technical committee. “There has been too much human error, and I have seen gold medals awarded to the wrong athlete,” said Mr. Coffa. The judges will have three cameras positioned to give them pictures from their own line of sight, and the technology will be introduced in 2015. As for Kazakhstan, Dr. Ajan was very impressed with their promotion of weightlifting. “The Federation has a fantastic development programme, with more and more weightlifting centers around the country,” he said. “They are making weightlifting academies with a special programme to involve more and more youngsters. “It’s unbelievable how Kazakhstan is investing so much money in sport to give a base to a healthy generation of young people.” The biggest star at the 2014 World Championships is likely to be Ilya Ilyin, the first Kazakh to win two Olympic gold medals. He won the 94kg gold in Beijing 2008 and London 2012, and has moved up to the 105kg class. He aims to win gold this week and make it three Olympic titles in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Kazakhstan has focused much of its sporting development on a group of sports at which they excel – weightlifting, boxing, judo, wrestling and taekwondo. Kazakhstan hosted the boxing world championships last year, will have the judo world championships next year, and for the next eight days is hosting the IWF World Championships in

2017 IWF World Championships will be held in Penang

The IWF is delighted to announce that the 2017 IWF World Championships will be held in Penang, Malaysia. Penang was chosen ahead of strong bids from three other nations: Belarus, Turkey and Uzbekistan. The IWF Executive Board during its meeting in Almaty selected Penang, Malaysia, staging the 2011 IWF Junior World Championships. Asia had to wait more than 50 years to host its first World Championships in Tehran, Iran in 1957. It is an indicator of the ever-growing status of the continent in the sport that Penang will be the fifth Asian city this century to host the World Championships. The 2014 World Championships started today (November 8-16) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the 2017 hosting decision was announced to the IWF Congress. The 2015 World Championships will be in Houston, Texas, and there are no championships in 2016, an Olympic

The IWF Executive Board and Congress concluded in Almaty

After a 2 days Executive Board Meeting and a Congress, the IWF bodies made several amendments and decisions in the following topics and fields: The new Anti-Doping Policy of the IWF was approved with the effect of 1st January 2015. It was necessary to amend in order to bring it in line with the new WADA Code. The 2015 Budget was approved by the IWF Executive Board and presented to the Congress. The Board reconfirmed the IWF’s recognition to the Masters. A special masters Technical Rules addendum and specific masters Anti-Doping regulations will be elaborated jointly with the IWF and Masters Commission. The Executive Board also approved the amendments regarding the CF contribution for 2015 and reconfirmed the timeline for the application process of the 2015 Development Program while Pyrros Dimas, 3 times Olympic Champion was welcomed as the Ambassador of the IWF Education Program. Following various requests from the Member Federations which combine different sports, the Executive Board reconfirmed the implementation of the IWF Constitution, i.e. it insists that weightlifting should be governed individually. It was accepted that the IWF should be included to the Combat Games under the umbrella of SportAccord. The IWF Congress delegates approved the new IWF logo and modified the Constitution accordingly. Reports on the preparation of future events were given to Congress delegates: 2014 IWF FISU World University Championships ChiangMai, THA 2015 IWF Youth World Championships Lima, PER 2015 IWF Junior World Championships Wroclaw, POL 2015 IWF World Championships Houston, USA 2016 Rio Olympic

NEW IWF LOGO APPROVED BY THE IWF CONGRESS

In its will to develop its corporate identity and create a valuable asset as well as a strong brand, the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) Congress today approved the new logo of the Federation. The concept emerged from international trends, the importance of being recognized to enhance visibility towards fans and new generations. Willing to become a passion brand to which fans, athletes, stakeholders can commit to, the logo contributes in establishing a powerful emotive connection between the IWF and its public. The modern face still recognizes the heritage and history of the Federation established in 1905. The new identity functions well in respect to both visibility and usage in the modern media particularly printed digital and broadcast. Our Vision of the Future is a fresh and trendy approach keeping the shapes proper to weightlifting. The IWF will open the use of its logo and allow its Member Federations to be part of the Weightlifting Family by personalizing the design. The IWF Congress in Almaty, KAZ approved the modification of the Constitution amended with the new