In memory of Alexander Kurlovich: Alexander Cup 2019
The 2019 Alexander Cup was held between 1-4 November in Grodno, Belarus, in memory of the two-time Olympic champion, four-times World Champion, two-times European Champion and Member of the IWF Technical Committee, Alexander Kurlovich.
The Cup, which was also a Silver Level Qualification Event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games has seen 26 men and 30 women participants from 17 countries all over the world. On the medals table, China won the most by far (24,6,3), Belarus kept home 24 medals (6,10,8) and Ukraine was third with 9 medals (6,3,0). At the men’s teams classification, Belarus took the lead followed by China and Armenia, while the Chinese women’s team proved to be the best followed by Belarus and Russia.
HUANG TING (CHN) improved her own Junior World Record by two 2kg in the women’s 64kg bodyweight category to 107kg in the Snatch and Uzbek FAYZULLAEVA Kumushkhon set a new Snatch Youth World Record in the same category at 98kg.
It shows the local importance of the event and the respect towards Alexander Kurlovich, that prior to the competition, the Governor of Grodno received the IWF delegation: Mohammed Jalood, General Secretary; Nicu Vlad, Vice President and Attila Adamfi, Director General.
International officials paid tribute at Alexanders grave together with Olga Kurlovich, his widow.
In relation to the competition, Attila Adamfi was invited to meet sports leaders and political notabilities of the country in Minsk, including Siarhei Kavalchunk, Sports Minister of Belarus, Yury Senko, Chairman of BWU and Belarus Customs Chairman and George Katulin, Secretary General of the Belarus NOC.
The IWF Director General was given an update regarding the improvements and investments in the matter of Anti-Doping in Belarus. In recent years, doping became a criminal action in the country, which, together with education programs, resulted in a doping-free record for Belarus since 2016.
Building on the experiences from the second European Games this year in Minsk, Attila Adamfi discussed the possibility of including weightlifting in the programme of the Games next year.