Phuket, Day 7: World records help Nasar and Lopez to dominate while challengers drop away
The European and Pan American 89kg champions Karlos Nasar and Yeison Lopez were in world record form as they finished well clear of Asia’s contenders on another day of excitement at the IWF World Cup in Phuket, Thailand.
Between them Nasar, from Bulgaria, and Colombian Lopez made six senior record attempts, two of which were successful. Nasar, the world’s top teenage weightlifter, also claimed two junior world records.
At the end of a messy session in which only four of the 11 athletes made a total, Nasar had joined Li Dayin from China at the top of the Olympic rankings on 396kg. Lopez, second on the night and third in the rankings, improved his best total to 392kg.
Karlos Nasar (BUL)
Li made only two good lifts, finishing 13kg down on his best total in third place here, ahead of the Italian Nino Pizzolato. These four were joined in the Paris top 10 by five who were already there before today – Keydomar Vallenilla from Venezuela, Mir Mostafa from Iran, Karim Abokahla from Egypt, Marin Robu from Moldova and Andranik Karapetyan from Armenia.
Tenth place changed hands. Petr Asayonak, the Individual Neutral Athlete from Belarus, dropped to 11th after Yu Dongju from Korea made a big move from the B Group.
Asayonak might still make it to Paris if China opts not to contest this category. China has four athletes ranked high enough but nations can take a maximum of three per gender to the Olympic Games.
Three of the first six athletes on to the platform bombed out in snatch and a fourth, world champion Mir Mostafa, declined his second two attempts after making 160kg. They were Asayonak, Boady Santavy from Canada, who has had knee problems, and Nathan Damron from the United States.
Yeison Lopez Lopez (COL)
The real excitement started in the last few minutes of the snatch contest. Lopez went for a world record on 181kg and failed. Nasar made the same weight to set junior and senior world records, improving his career best by 5kg. His senior record lasted for one minute before Lopez came out to make 182kg, earning huge cheers from a noisy and appreciative audience.
In clean and jerk Nasar made 215kg for a junior world record on total, then went close but failed twice at 224kg, which would have given him senior records in clean and jerk and total. Lopez tried and failed once.
“I trained specifically to improve my snatch for this. That was my goal and it went well,” said Lopez. “Now I will return to Colombia, then I’ll go to Madrid and prepare for the Olympics in Europe.”
The last man to bomb out, after Nasar and Lopez had finished, was China’s second contender Tian Tao. He was faced with the impossible task of making 226kg to overtake Li. Tian Tao announced his retirement from international competition afterwards, although he will continue at national level.
Nasar finished 181-215-396, Lopez 182-210-392 and Li 172-210-382.
Yu’s move from 17th place to 10th was the best effort by a B Group lifter in the first week of the World Cup, which ends on April 11. He qualified for his third Olympic Games.
His eight rivals made a total of five snatches and three clean and jerks between them. Only three made a total.
Yu had two attempts at a career-best 209kg. He missed the first, then sat on the steps of the platform for a minute and a half to compose himself. He calmly went out and made his final attempt, finishing 166-209-375. “That was unbelievable. I’m so, so happy,” he said.
Ri Chong Song (PRK)
In the earlier 81kg Ri Chong Song from DPR Korea had two more attempts at taking Rahmat Erwin’s clean and jerk world record. Just as he had done at the Asian Championships in February, Ri failed both times on 210kg.
Ri, PRK’s seventh winner here, made 166-200-366 ahead of Maksad Meredov from Turkmenistan on 146-182-328 and Samuel Guertin from Canada on 140-175-315.
The two oldest competitors at the World Cup, both from South Africa, teamed up for the second successive day. Chantelle Burger, 41, lifted at 64kg on Friday with Andre Gadney, who will be 44 next month, as her coach.
Andre Gadney (RSA)
Today Burger was coach when Gadney finished four places and 115kg behind Ri. Gadney said he enjoyed himself even though he knew his numbers would be uncompetitive here.
“What a fantastic competition. It’s inspiring for the young lifters I coach when they see I’m at an event like this. Some of them are making good numbers and I want to be coaching them at big competitions. It’s for the future.”
It was a big day for Jose Garcia, the only international weightlifter from Timor Leste. He desperately needed to make a total to support his application for a Universality place in Paris. Six of these will be awarded to weightlifters by the International Olympic Committee.
He finished last but Garcia did what he needed to do by making a 205kg total.
Australia is all but certain to claim another place in Paris after Jacqueline Nichele finished ahead of her team-mate Sarah Cochrane and Maximina Uepa from Nauru in the early sessions of the women’s 71kg.
That should give 23-year-old Nichele the continental slot because all other continents have athletes in the top 10, a situation that is highly unlikely to change in Sunday’s A and B Groups.
By Brian Oliver
Photos by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia
