Archive from 2015

Six different medallists and a big surprise in men’s 77kg

By Brian Oliver at the George R Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas Six different nationalities were represented in the medal ceremony for a remarkable men’s 77kg. The world record holder failed to make a total, a Kazakhstan athlete who was once a flag-bearer for Azerbaijan won, an Egyptian who moved up from 69kg only six months ago finished third, and a lifter from the B Group was on the podium. Lu Xiaojun from Chjina, the Olympic and Asian Games champion who set the snatch and total world records in the 2013 IWF World Championships, looked set for victory when he took the snatch gold with 175kg. He missed a world record attempt at 177kg, then failed with all three clean & jerks at 201kg. He complained later of a knee injury. Kim Kwang Song, of PR Korea, second in the snatch, also failed in his first attempt at 201kg but when he made it with his final lift he went into the lead. Only Nijat Rahimov, with two lifts to come, could beat him and to do so he would have to go up 12kg from 195 to 207. Amazingly, he did it with his first try, and even had a go at the world record on 211kg, which he failed. “I was very surprised,” said Kim. “I was expecting just to compete against China. I have never been in a competition with so many rivals and I offer my congratulations to the winner.” Rahimov, who won on body weight on 372kg, had carried the flag for Azerbaijan at the 2013 Universiade. He had a falling-out with Azerbaijan’s coaches and switched nationality in the summer. “I moved because the coaching in Kazakhstan is better,” he said. The bronze went to Mohamed Ihab of Egypt, who also deserved a gold medal for best celebration of the week. He screamed, jumped, clapped his hands and kissed the floor when he made his third clean & jerk at 201kg – cheered all the while by a large and appreciative crowd. He then watched his rivals fail with lifts and danced around the warm-up room when he was sure of a medal. Ihab moved up from 69kg only six months ago and said afterwards, “I kept saying to my coach in training 200, 200 I can do it. But he said no, wait for competition. I wanted to compete in the African Championship and again he said no, you can win a medal in the World Championships. “I had one chance. The coach told me ‘Now, this time, go!’ My blood was hot and I did it. I am so happy, my mother is so happy.” Ihab set national, African and Arabic records for snatch, clean & jerk and total. There was a silver medal for a B Group lifter in the clean & jerk. Elkhan Aligulizada, of Azerbaijan, came from the audience on to the podium when only Rahimov beat his 203kg. The Armenian teenager Andranik Karapetyan took snatch

Two more world records as Kostova and ’the new Shi’ take the honours

By Brian Oliver at the George R Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas Another day, another two  world records at the 2015 IWF World Championships. Boyanka Kostova, the Bulgarian who became an Azerbaijani in 2010, set a snatch world best with her third lift and bettered the mark for the total with her final lift in the women’s 58kg. With two kilos more on that third clean & jerk she would have had a clean sweep of world bests on the day but it is within her sights. “I will try my best to do it in Rio de Janeiro,” she said, looking ahead to next summer’s Olympic Games. In an exciting men’s 69kg the “new” Shi Zhiyong followed in the footsteps of the original by taking gold for China. The 22-year-old was renamed by his coach, when he was a boy, after the 2004 62kg Olympic champion Shi Zhiyong, who is now 35. “It means wisdom and courage,” said Shi. “I was still young when my coach gave me the name and I did not know about the 2004 Olympics. As I grew up I learned all about Shi Zhiyong and I am proud to say we have met since.” Kostova was in imperious form. She led China’s Deng Mengrong by 4kg after her record-breaking snatch of 112kg, and extended her lead in the clean & jerk. She missed her first attempt at 140kg but had another chance and made it for a total of 252kg. The Azerbaijan state pays huge rewards to its gold medallists. Last summer, any athlete who won gold in the European Games earned about $100,000, and a delighted Kostova said, “We are very well supported by the government when we win.” Deng offered her congratulations to Kostova and said, “I will just have to train harder now.” Kuo Hsing-Chun, of Taipei, finished 15kg behind Kostova for the bronze medal on total and Sukanya Srisurat, of Thailand, took bronze in the snatch. In the men’s event Oleg Chen, of Russia, who was 27 on Sunday, was beaten by Shi but not disappointed. “I had knee surgery recently and I lifted more than I have ever done, even in training, so I am very pleased with the result,” said Chen, who was 160-184-344. Turkey’s Daniyar Ismayilov, 23, was third. “A very good result for me and I am looking forward to training hard and doing my best at the Olympics,” he said. The minor medals in the clean & jerk, which was won by Shi, went to Azerbaijan’s Firidun Guliyev and PR Korea’s Kim Myong

Chen takes Kim’s title – and his world record

By Brian Oliver at the George R Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas Two more world records fell as athletes from China and North Korea gave the crowd at the 2015 IWF World Championships a spectacular session of sport for the second straight day. On Saturday, records fell in the 56kg when Om Yun Chol of PR Korea claimed victory over Wu Jingbiao. On Sunday the star was China’s Chen Lijun, who set a double world record in the 62kg to dethrone Kim Un Guk. Chen was assured of the gold medal with a lift to spare when Kim failed to make 179kg in the clean & jerk. Kim, the 2012 Olympic and 2014 world champion, finished 4kg short of his world record with a total of 328kg. Chen, 22, who had beaten Kim in the 2013 IWF World Championships, went for a final attempt at 183kg. He made it to set a world best for clean & jerk and, on 333kg, total. “I give him my special congratulations,” said a gracious Kim, 27, afterwards. Chen said he had felt confident and “it would be my dream” to break the record again at the Olympic Games next summer. Both men vowed to train even harder but it may not be a head-to-head contest. Valentin Hristov, of Azerbaijan, finished third in the snatch, clean & jerk and total, and believes he can close on the top two. In the women’s 53kg Hsu Shu-Ching, of Taipei, won gold with her final lift, relegating China’s Chen Xiaoting to second place. Hidilyn Diaz, of the Philippines, took bronze in the snatch, the clean & jerk and the total. The Chinese lifter led by 5kg after the snatch and after missing her first two attempts at 120kg in the clean & jerk she looked in trouble. But Chen made her third attempt and Hsu, who holds the 233kg world record for total, had to lift 125kg to win on body weight. She made it, to the delight of a noisy band of flag-waving Taipei fans in the audience. “My form has not been very good this year and I would like to say thank you for that support from the Chinese Taipei community here,” said Hsu. Last year’s winner Zulfiya Chinshanlo – who finished well ahead of Hsu in Almaty - did not defend her title and her fellow Kazakh Margarita Yelisseyeva moved up from 48kg to take her place. Yelisseyeva, who made her first five lifts, looked very pleased with a total of 202kg. There were more good performances from Sopita Tanasan of Thailand, who finished fourth on total for the second straight year, and two teenagers. Rattanaphon Pakkaratha, 18, also from Thailand, posted 89-116-205 and the 17-year-old Latvian Rebeka Koha made her first five lifts to register

Om’s a “Phenom” again – and so is teenager Jiang

Om Yun Chol won his third straight world title, broke a world record in the process, then promised to defend his Olympic crown next summer. The PR Korea flag was raised after Om won the 56kg on body weight from Wu Jingbiao, of China, who also broke a world record. The Chinese flag was hoisted a couple of hours later when 17-year-old Jiang Huihua won the women’s 48kg, the second medal event of the day. “I am going to win gold every time I compete until I finish my career in weightlifting,” a smiling Om said after giving Wu – “my best friend in weightlifting” - a hug at the post-event press conference. “When my rival runs towards a gold medal, I fly.” Om had to break his own clean & jerk world record to overtake Wu, who had beaten Halil Mutlu’s 14-year-old snatch world record. In a dramatic finale to a compelling competition Om then went for a clean & jerk of 175kg, which would have taken him past Mutlu’s world record total of 305kg, set in 2000. He cleaned it but failed to complete the lift. Maybe next time... Kim Tuan Thach, the Vietnamese who lost on bodyweight to Om at the 2014 IWF World Championships in Kazakhstan, was third overall on 287kg, 15kg behind the top two. After two failures in the snatch he was never in contention for gold but at least he had something to look forward to. “I’ve had to eat very small portions for a long time,” he said. “Now I’m going to find a Vietnamese restaurant in Houston and I won’t have to worry about what I eat.” When Wu, the favourite, was beaten by Om in the Olympic Games in London he said afterwards that had “shamed the motherland”. He did not know it at the time but there was no shame in losing to “Om the Phenom” as he became known. Wu was determined to gain revenge this year, with the next Olympiad less than 10 months away. All the other nine lifters had finished before Wu made his first snatch attempt at 135kg, only 3kg lower than Mutlu’s long-standing world record. He failed, but made his second attempt. The target for his final attempt then went from 136 to 138 before he opted to go for the record at 139. Wu made the lift, screamed with delight, pumped his fists and made a sweeping bow to the cheering crowd. He broke a world record, led Om by 8kg and made his first two clean & jerks, but still it was not enough. Om had to beat his own world record by 1kg to gain the lead and he did it, lifting 171kg. Yet again, he lifted three times his own body weight. After his narrow failure at 175kg Om ran around the stage with the DPR Korea flag. Long Qingquan, the Beijing 2008 Olympic champion and another of China’s multiple medal winners, failed to make a lift in the snatch and withdrew from the clean & jerk. Arli Chontey of Kazakhstan won the snatch silver with 132kg and Nestor Colonia of the Philippines (158kg) took clean & jerk bronze. In the women’s 48kg three of the top four in the world rankings, before competition, were Chinese. The best of them is Jiang, whose 95-113-208 in her national championships this year made her the clear favourite. In Houston she made “only” 88kg in the snatch but that put her well clear. The two PR Korea lifters, Ryang Chung Hwa and Ri Song Gum, did not do well in the snatch, in which all 12 lifters failed with their third attempts. Ri won the clean & jerk gold on body weight from Jiang, with 110kg, but it was not enough for a medal on total. Thi Huyen Vuong of Vietnam took silver on 194kg, behind Jiang by 4kg. Bronze was won by Japan’s Hiromi Miyake (193kg), 30, who is aiming for her fourth Olympic Games next year. “When I was 17 I was competing at 53kg and I was far away from a medal,” said Miyake at the press conference, looking to Jiang on her right. “This was a special performance by the girl sitting next to

Houston Day One report

No medals, but plenty of glory for Charles and ‘Miss Muscles’ on day one of Houston 2015 By Brian Oliver at the George R Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas It was appropriate that the first four lifters on stage at the 2015 IWF World Championships were from four different continents, because this year’s Championships have attracted athletes from more parts of the world than ever before. The highest number of national federations represented previously was 87 in Paris in 2011. This year the 609 lifters are drawn from 98 nations, several of whom are competing for the first time at this level. Before the first session, the men’s 62kg D Group, the 7ft 2in basketball superstar Dikembe Mutombo appeared on stage to say a few words. Mutombo, who also played a role in the opening ceremony on Thursday night, was an NBA player for 18 seasons, the last five of them in Houston. He is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is renowned for his humanitarian work in Africa. In a message to all athletes he said, “I know what it takes to compete on the international stage. I wish you good luck and good success.” Success, for the lifters on day one, was not winning medals – there were no A Groups in action – but setting personal bests and perhaps national records. Mutombo, who retired from playing six years ago, would have been happy that the first lifter to make his mark in that respect was an African, Charles Ssekyaaya from Uganda.Ssekyaaya made six good lifts for a total of 263kg, beating the Ugandan national record in the clean & jerk and the total. “Six from six! I am so happy,” he said. “This is better than anything I have done before, and now that I have such strong support behind me I feel that nothing can stop me.” Ssekyaaya has spent the past two months at Colorado Springs, being coached by Zygmunt Smalcerz, head weightlifting coach at the US Olympic Training Center. The Ugandan won an Olympic solidarity scholarship and will be in Colorado Springs until June, hoping to get a wild card for the Rio Olympics next summer. “I have improved really quickly,” said Ssekyaaya, 21, whose total was 24kg up on his recent fifth place at the All-Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo. “I have a coach, a room, the right food – I never had that before. I can just train.” Another athlete dreaming of the Olympics is Tham Nguyen, who has been weightlifting for only a year. Nguyen, known as “Miss Muscles” to her friends, is one of four women competing for Ireland, whose females have never been good enough to lift at the World Championships before. “Miss Muscles” is only 19, and has made rapid progress, as have all Ireland’s women’s team. “A few years ago we barely had any female lifters,” said coach Harry Leech. “But there’s a new openness about strength and conditioning in women’s sport and it has led to a big increase in weightlifting numbers in plenty of countries.” Nguyen’s 15-year-old  brother, Nhat, is a top badminton player and the siblings hope to both compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Their parents moved to Ireland from Vietnam. “Miss Muscles” snatched 57kg, clean & jerked 73kg and had a total of 130kg in the women’s 48kg C Group, in which her teammate Alexandria Craig lifted 57-71-128. Craig, 30, a former gymnast and circus performer, has strong American connections. Her mother is from San Francisco and, on visits to her late grandmother, who lived there, she sometimes trained in California. Their efforts were well behind the other 11 lifters but, given that one of her rivals was 20 years older than her – the 39-year-old Italian Eva Giganti – Nguyen has time on her side. Her next big aim is the 2016 European Juniors. Ireland’s other hopefuls are in the 58kg C Group. Aoife Macneill, 20, is a former track sprinter, while Emma Alderdice, 23, the top-ranked Irish weightlifter of all time, played volleyball before taking up weightlifting. “It’s just great to be here,” said Alderdice. Irish weightlifting is a volunteer operation that survives on funding of about $20,000 a year to cover everything. The only way is

PUBLIC DISCLOSURE

The IWF reports that sample of Mr. Chin Yi Yang (TPE) has returned an Adverse Analytical Finding for (S1.1 Anabolic Agents) testosterone. As a consequence, the athlete is provisionally suspended in view of a potential anti-doping rule violation. In any case where it is determined that the athlete did not commit an anti-doping rule violation, the relevant decision will also be