Last Day of the 2021 IWF Youth World Championships
After more than a week, full of emotions and good lifts, the youth weightlifters bid farewell to Jeddah with their hands full of medals, good memories, and goals for the future.
On the last day of the 2021 IWF Youth World Championships, it was the turn for the Women +81 kg and Men +102 kg categories.
Women +81 kg Category
At 11.00, local time, it was the turn for the women. The medals were fought for by just 7 weightlifters in this category. One of the seven, Rufina Chalkarova (KAZ) was ahead of the pack and made her mark from the start when in the first Snatch she was the only one to lift a three-digit number. Thanks to this and her steady but confident progress between 100kg, 104kg, and 107 kg attempts, she won Gold in the category. The Silver in Snatch went to Fatmagul Cevik from Turkey with a third lift of 95 kg and the Bronze finally went to Taiane Justino De Lima from Brasil with a second attempt of 94 kg. She tried the Silver with a 96 kg Snatch attempt but it was a no lift.
In the C&J, the Gold was again won by Rufina Chalkarova of Kazakhstan with a lift of 140 kg and the Silver was won by the Bronze medalist of the Snatch, Taiane Justino De Lima from Brasil with 125 kg. Lastly the Bronze medal went to the Silver medalist in Snatch, Turkey’s Fatmagul Cevik who, after failing her second and third attempts, won the third medal with a first Clean & Jerk attempt of 108 kg.
In the Total, there were big differences in numbers, especially between Gold and Silver: Rufina Chalkarova of Kazakhstan took the Gold with a total of 247 kg, Taiane Justino De Lima from Brasil the Silver with lifts totaling 219 kg, and Fatmagul Cevik from Turkey won the third medal, the Bronze, with a total of 203 kg.
Men +102 kg Category
Couple hours later it was the turn of the men’s +102 kg lifters. In this category, 10 weightlifters were fighting for the medals .
For the Gold the fight was between two Russian lifters: Aslambek Pliev and Ivan Salamatin. Finally the Gold was for the first, Aslambek Pliev, with a lift of 150 kg. The Silver then was achieved by his teammate Ivan Salamatin with a 148 kg Snatch, and ultimately, on the podium, the Iranian Amirreza Mohammadiniasamakoush won the Bronze lifting four kilograms less, 144 kg.
In the Clean & Jerk, Aslambek Pliev from Russia again won Gold with a best Clean & Jerk of 190 kg. The Silver was won by Colin James Reis from USA, who achieved a third lift of 169 kg after two successful ones of 160 kg and 167 kg. Finally, the podium was completed by the Russian Ivan Salamatin after a progression of 160kg, 165kg and 168 kg.
In the Total and the last podium of the 2021 IWF Youth World Championships, the two first medals went to Russia. Aslambek Pliev won the Gold medal with 340 kg and the Silver medal was then for Ivan Salamatin with a Total of 316 kg. Lastly, the Bronze was won by Amirreza Mohammadiniasamakoush from Iran with 310 KG.
It was an amazing 8 days of competition here in Jeddah, with 202 athletes from 44 countries competing at the 2021 IWF Youth World Championships. Altogether 8 Youth World Records were broken, which show great promises for these young athletes. Hopefully we will see them soon on the weightlifting platform!