Day 5 – 2022 IWF Junior World Championships
Day 5 of the 2022 IWF Junior World Championships featured the Men 81kg (Group A and B) and the Women 71kg (Group A and B) categories.
Men 81kg Category
At 3PM local time, the A finals of the day started with the Men 81kg Category. For majority of the lifters it was their first opportunity to show their performances at international level.
In Snatch, last years Youth World Championships Bronze medalist, Hakan KURNAZ (TUR) won with 150kg which he lifted on his second attempt. He also tried to lift 153kg, which would have been his personal best at international competition, but unfortunately it was a no lift. At his first international competititon, Yegor SHERER (KAZ) with 149kg got the Silver medal. The last medal of Snatch went to Ertjan KOFSHA (ALB) with 146kg.
In the Clean&Jerk portion of the program the competititon was on between Saba ASANIDZE (GEO), Mahmoud HOSNY ELSAYED (EGY) and Denis POLUBOYARINOV (KAZ). Hosny started at 173kg which he could only manage on his second attempt. Poluboyarinov followed with 175kg and Asanidze finished his first attempt of 176kg successfully. On their next try both Asanidze and Poluboyarinov increased to 181kg which only the Kazakh athlete could manage. Hosny followed with 182kg as his last attempt and with that it was sure that he will medal in the category. At this point the last two lifts of the competition was left for the Kazakh and Georgian athlete. First came Asanidze who lifted a successful last attempt of 183kg. Poluboyarinov had the last lift of the session with 185kg. He managed the lift and the majority of the Referees deemed it as a Good lift, however the Jury asked for a review. After looking back the footage of the lift they made the decision to reverse the referees decision. Even though the coach of Poluboyarinov challenged the decision, the Jury stayed with their previous conclusion and finally it was a no lift. The medals were as follows: Poluboyarinov won the Bronze medal, Hosny Elsayed finished second and the winner of the category was Asanidze.
Not a common situation occured in the Total results as all the medalist achieved the same Total of 324kg, therefore the time order of the Totals played a role in the placement of the athletes. Hakan KURNAZ (TUR) won Gold, Mahmoud HOSNY ELSAYED (EGY) took Silver and Saba ASANIDZE (GEO) finished third.
Women 71kg Category
The last competition of the day was of the Women 71kg category which started at 6PM local time. Among the athletes were Olivia REEVES (USA) last years Junior World Champion of the category, and Neama SAID (EGY) 2021 Senior World Champion of the W64kg category.
Bronze medal in Snatch went to Aysel OZKAN (TUR) with 101kg, which was exactly same best lift of hers as at last years Junior World Championships. The big question was who would win the Snatch Gold, the current Junior World Champion or the Senior World Champion of 64kg category. Neama SAID (EGY) started at 100kg while Olivia REEVES (USA) increased to 103kg. After that Said did 104kg and Revees kept her advantage of 1kg through all lift after her first. They both went 3 from 3 and with 106kg Said won Silver and the victory went to Reeves with 107kg. For Revees it was the best Snatch at international level, while Said matched her Snatch from the 2021 IWF World Championships.
In the Clean&Jerk portion of the program based on the first entries, 4 athletes were in competition for the medals. Among those four athletes Neama SAID was the most consistent and with 3 from 3 won the Gold medal with 131kg. Even though Olivia REEVES started at the highest she couldn’t manage her first two attempts and her last successful one of 129kg was only enogh for Silver. The biggest fight of the competition was for the Bronze medal. Mariana Garcia Gomez from Mexico and Erika Sinisterra Torres from Colombia both made a good lift on their first attempts (123kg and 122kg). After that they both missed their second attempts (127kg and 125kg) and only Garcia could lift her last attempt of 127kg and with that took Bronze.
The last Total podium of the fifth day was the following: Neama SAID with 237kg could stand on the top of the podium, Olivia REEVES with 236kg became second and Mariana Garcia Gomez with 222kg received the last medal of the day.