MASSIDDA (ITA) is Youth and Junior World Champion!
The 2019 Junior World Championships kicked off today in Suva, Fiji with the women’s 45kg bodyweight category, a short session where all competitors received medals – as only 3 lifters participated.
Vietnamese KHONG My Phuong, silver medallist at this years IWF World Cup grasped the overall (158kg), and the Snatch (74kg) gold medals, while her VIE teammate, second finisher PHAM Dinh Thi, who was Asian Youth Champion last year, managed to take away the Clean and Jerk first place from her, lifting 1kg more than KHONG (85kg). The Turkish lifter, DOGAN Ayse received 3 bronze medals (68, 83, 151).
The day continued with the men’s 55kg session, where MASSIDDA Sergio (ITA) excelled again, after winning this year’s Youth World Championships, he took the Junior World title too. With a 102kg Snatch result, he ended up second in this lift. Clean and Jerk clearly being his strong suit, he came out at 125kg than continued the successful lifts at 128kg and 131kg. His Total result of 233kg secured him a 9kg advantage over Japanese KUBO Kaito (224kg).
Another Japanese lifter, YAMAGUCHI Yuto finished in the third place, only one kilogram behind KUBO. His strong performance in the Snatch (103kg) was worthy of a gold medal, but being able to produce only one good lift in the Clean and Jerk at 120kg, he could not cut ahead of KUBO in Total.