Archive from 2024

Lifters Mora and Jamali included in the 2024 Olympic Refugee Team

Two lifters - Ramiro Mora and Yekta Jamali - will be part of the Olympic Refugee Team at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, a group that comprises 36 athletes representing 12 sports. The announcement was made today by the IOC President Thomas Bach in Lausanne (SUI): “We welcome all of you with open arms. You are an enrichment to our Olympic Community, and to our societies”. "With your participation in the Olympic Games, you will demonstrate the human potential of resilience and excellence. This will send a message of hope to the more than 100 million displaced people around the world," continued the IOC President. Ramiro Mora receiving the good news from the IOC Both lifters now selected for the Games in Paris had the opportunity to compete recently, as part of the IWF Refugee Team, at the IWF World Cup in Phuket, Thailand.  Mora, originally from Cuba and based in Great Britain, was born on September 29, 1997 and ranked 18th in the men’s 102kg, after lifting 162-197-359. Jamali, living in Germany and of Iranian origin, turned 20 years old on March 31 and placed 19th in Thailand in the women’s 81kg category (100-125-225). Yekta Jamali Both athletes were part of a long list of 74 IOC Scholarship holders, with a real possibility to represent the Olympic Refugee Team at the 2024 Olympics. This is the third edition of the Games with a Refugee representation, after successful previous experiences in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020ne. “From the creation of the concept in 2015 until now, we unfortunately saw the number of refugees in the world grow from around 60 million to over 110 million. That is why these athletes must be represented and the programme was even reinforced for Paris 2024,” explained Mr Bach. From the athletes’ side, Jamali had spoken in Phuket about her challenging conditions, when arriving in Germany: “I have no family in Germany, and when I got there I could not train for about six months. But I have friends there who have been so kind and helpful. I am in Frankfurt, and I feel happy now. I hope to get a German passport.” Mora reflects on the importance of this initiative: “Being part of the Olympic Refugee Team is not just an opportunity to compete; it’s a platform to inspire and represent hope for refugees all over the world”. The IWF President Mohammed Jalood also received the IOC news with enormous joy: “The IWF is very happy to learn that two lifters – Ramiro Mora and Yekta Jamali – will be part of the IOC Refugee Team competing at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games. After the creation in 2023 of the first-ever IWF Refugee programme, this decision underlines the good work our International Federation is doing in welcoming and including those athletes in our activities. It also showcases the intense work and effort from Ramiro and Yekta – they were both present in our recent IWF World Cup in Phuket (THA) –, who fully deserve their recognition from the IOC”.  “The Refugee Team project is aimed at giving a second opportunity to athletes overcoming extremely challenging situations and bringing them back to the Sport they love. I wish Ramiro and Yekta the best of luck in Paris and I thank them for representing in such a noble way the sport of weightlifting!” concluded Mr Jalood. At the IWF level, the first Refugee Team was created in 2023 and comprised seven lifters. This year, the group had six athletes, including the two that were finally selected by the IOC.  IWF Executive Board member Florian Sperl, responsible for the project in our International Federation, was also thrilled with the announcement: “Having 12 sports represented in the team, and weightlifting being one of them with two athletes, this shows the value we have in the Olympic movement. As was said by the IOC, their selection was based on two main criteria, the official refugee status (recognised by the UN), and their sports performances. This last point is very important, as it demonstrates the effort these two lifters put into becoming Olympians despite the difficulties. Congratulations to Ramiro and Yekta and all the best for Paris!” IWF

IWF President honoured by the University of Ningbo (CHN)

The IWF President Mohammed Jalood was appointed as Visiting Professor of the Sports Science Faculty of the University of Ningbo (CHN), in a ceremony held on April 28, 2024. That was the highlight of an IWF delegation visit to China, who had the opportunity to be in Fuzhou and Ningbo (host of the 2026 IWF World Championships). On this occasion, Mr Jalood was accompanied by the IWF General Secretary Antonio Urso and the IWF CEO Achilleas Tsogas. “I am very honoured to receive this prestigious distinction from the University of Ningbo. I share it with the entire weightlifting family, working very hard for the development of our beautiful Sport on the five continents. China is a great powerhouse in weightlifting and Ningbo will surely be an excellent host of our World Championships in 2026!” declared the IWF President after receiving his tribute. IWF President Mohammed Jalood receiving his distinction The first two days of the visit were spent in Fuzhou, where the Chinese National Championships took place – the IWF delegation was invited to attend four A Sessions of the event and also visit the outstanding Majiang Weightlifting Training Centre, a world-class facility for the preparation of Chinese and international lifters. On April 27, the group joined Ningbo, chosen in early December 2023 as the host city of the 2026 IWF World Championships. Ningbo is located in the northeast province of Zhejiang, not far from the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou. It has a population of over nine million citizens and has acquired recent successful experience in staging sports international events. The competition venue of the Championships will be the Ningbo Olympic Sports Centre, a facility constructed in 2019 and with a 10,000-seat capacity. Moreover, all the proposed hotels to host the participants in the competition will be within a 30-minute distance by car from the venue. In Ningbo, the IWF delegation formally signed the Hosting Agreement for the 2026 World Championships, visited the venue and proposed hotels for the staging of the IWF showcase, and was invited for a lecture on the development of weightlifting and the importance for a city hosting top-level international weightlifting events, at the University of Ningbo. It was also the occasion to pay a fair tribute to the IWF President for his leading role in the progress of the Sport and its increased value within the Olympic movement. “We had a very fruitful meeting with the organisers and excellent conditions will be provided to all participants in our showcase. I sincerely thank all Chinese authorities for their commitment and enthusiasm in the staging of the 2026 IWF World Championships, as well as for their devotion to weightlifting,” concluded Mr Jalood.   IWF

Phuket review: Rizki v Rahmat, red lights and PRK helped to make World Cup memorable – and unique

The IWF World Cup, which ended in Phuket, Thailand on Thursday, was an exciting, high-quality, well organised competition that will live long in the memory. It was also unique. Weightlifting at the Olympic Games in August will be very different from what we saw over 12 days at the World Cup, which rounded off the Paris 2024 qualifying programme. There are three good reasons why – no head-to-heads between team-mates, nowhere near as many red lights and bombouts, and the best team in Phuket cannot be there. An unforgettable contest between two Indonesians was the highlight in Thailand.  Rahmat Erwin had led the Olympic rankings for 482 days, setting world records along the way, only to be knocked out of Paris 2024 by team-mate Rizki Juniansyah in the last five minutes of qualifying. Rizki Juniansyah (INA) The long-time rankings leader Jiang Huihua from China, Olympic champion Hidilyn Diaz from the Philippines, Tokyo silver medallist Tamara Salazar from Ecuador and multiple European champion Samuel Gasparyan from Armenia were overtaken by a team-mate in similar, if less dramatic fashion. Those showdowns were a feature in Phuket because nations are limited to one athlete per weight category in Paris. This was the last chance for anyone to outperform a team-mate. PRK claimed eight victories and as many world records, seven of them by women. PRK has shown itself to be the world’s strongest weightlifting nation in the seven months since it returned to international competition after a long absence caused by the Covid pandemic. But it entered the Olympic qualifying programme too late for its athletes to be eligible for Paris. Chong Song Ri (PRK) The number of red lights and bombouts added to the World Cup drama. Athletes overstretched themselves in trying to move up the rankings, usually in the B Groups. That will not happen in Paris, where there will not even be any B Groups. After so many failures, the cut-off point between the 10th-placed lifter and those below barely changed throughout the weight categories. The biggest upward move was 3kg in the women’s 59kg, while the cut-off in two categories remained exactly as it was before the World Cup. Two athletes did make a spectacular jump from the B Group to qualify. Yu Dongju from Korea moved up eight places at 89kg and Davranbek Hasanbayev from Turkmenistan climbed from 26th to eighth at 102kg. Davranbek Hasanbayev (TKM) The individual stars in Phuket included world record breakers Rizki, China’s Liu Huanhua at 102kg, Hou Zhihui and PRK’s Ri Song Gum in the women’s 49kg, Karlos Nasar from Bulgaria at 89kg and Hampton Morris from the United States at 61kg - his country’s first senior world record holder in 55 years. Others who added to the spectacle without breaking world records included two Olympic champions, Li Wenwen from China and Neisi Dajomes from Ecuador, and the American Olivia Reeves, who stood on top of the women’s 71kg podium above athletes from China and PRK. Li Wenwen (CHN) China once more has to decide which athletes to leave at home, having qualified nine when the limit is six. The women did better than the men, whose national head coach Yu Jie told Xinhua, China’s state news agency, “The performance of the men's team was below expectations. “We did not perform at our level in training, and we need to strengthen our fighting spirit. It's a good thing that the problems were exposed in a major event and we could learn what could go wrong in the Olympic Games so that we can address them before the Games.” Those who will take five athletes to Paris include Egypt, Korea, the United States and Venezuela, all of whom deserve respect for taking so many when the athlete quota is the lowest this century at 120. The US and Venezuela will have to refuse women’s places after exceeding the limit of three. Kate Vibert, one of the unlucky ones who will not be selected despite being ranked in the top 10 of two weight categories in the extended lists (two or more per nation), said, “The respect for the US team throughout this quad has exponentially increased.” Hampton Morris (USA) Mike Gattone, USA Weightlifting’s head coach and performance director, agreed. “I’m super proud of our athletes,” he said. “Between 2017 and 2023 our team has won almost 700 medals at under-15, youth, junior and senior international competitions. “In that time we had breakthrough athletes like CJ Cummings and Mattie Rogers, then Kate and Olivia. Coaches and athletes have been able to watch them and see what’s possible.  “I also think the ITA has helped us. Thanks to the hard work of the IWF we are now a cleaner sport, and that has helped ‘non-traditional’ weightlifting countries to improve.” Karlos Nasar (BUL) Final rankings are now published on the IWF website. The full list of 120 for Paris, plus any Refugee Team members added by the IOC, will not be known until June. Deadlines regarding team nominations and reallocations, as well as the rankings, are on the website here: https://iwf.sport/paris-2024-olympic-games/ By Brian Oliver Photos by Giorgio

Phuket, Day 12: Photo Gallery

All photos by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia [gallery size="large"

Phuket, Day 12: Lasha watches from crowd as Lalayan wins and young Iraqi marks himself out as a future star

The final day of the IWF World Cup was not like the 11 that came before it. There were no world records, nobody knocked a team-mate out of the Olympic rankings, and the two biggest names in the men’s super-heavyweights were in the crowd rather than on the platform. Multiple world record holder Lasha Talakhadze from Georgia withdrew after weighing for the second successive qualifier.  The rankings leader has had knee problems and is more concerned with his long-term preparations for Paris. Varazdat Lalayan (ARM) Second-ranked Gor Minasyan from Bahrain also withdrew, along with two others in the top 10, Man Asaad from Syria and Abdelrahman Elsayed from Egypt. When Eduard Ziaziulin, the Individual Neutral Athlete from Belarus, bombed out in snatch only half of those heading for Paris were left to contest the clean and jerk. Talakhadze watched with his coach in the audience as Varazdat Lalayan from Armenia and Ali Davoudi, third and fourth in the rankings, improved their best totals in finishing first and second. Both men declined their final attempt. Lalayan made 210-253-463 and Davoudi 202-252-454. Another Iranian, Ayat Sharifi, was third from the B Group on 201-246-447 where he went for a final attempt to overtake Davoudi, but failed. Talakhadze will be trying for his third Olympic gold in Paris. One of the men he saw today is already thinking about winning in Los Angeles in 2028. The young Iraqi Ali Yusur clearly has a promising future in the super-heavyweights. He was a teenager when he opened his qualifying campaign with a total of 389kg and was just past his 20th birthday when he set a junior world record in snatch at the World Championships last September. Ali Yusur (IRQ) He moved into the Olympic top 10 at the Asian Championships in Uzbekistan in February and finished eighth in the rankings after another improvement today on 195-232-427. Yusur did it with only two good lifts, declining his last two clean and jerks after making a career-best total. “I started when I was 10, and weightlifting is the only sport for me,” he said. “My father was a weightlifter and now he is my coach. He focuses only on me and that has really helped me. “I am very motivated to get an Olympic medal because Iraq has not won one since the 1960s. That long wait is what pushes me every day in training.” That last medal, a bronze for the lightweight lifter Abdul Wahid Aziz in 1960, is the only one Iraq has ever won in any sport at the Olympics. “I would like to win a medal in Paris, of course,” said Yusur. “But I will have four years after that to prepare for the next Olympics. In 2028 it has to be gold.” Ali Davoudi (IRI) Yusur trains mostly in Baghdad and has been to training camps in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. He weighed in today about 20kg lighter than Lalayan and nearly 50kg less than Davoudi’s 181kg. Enzo Kuworge, the 22-year-old from the Netherlands, made a big effort after a qualifying schedule blighted by a serious knee injury. Kuworge was off the platform for more than two years before returning at the European Championships in February. Today he made 179-225-404, declining his final attempt after failing at 235kg. Ayat Sharifi (IRI) Eishiro ‘Tank’ Murakami was by far the noisiest lifter of the World Cup, yelling at the crowd and marching to the front of the platform to large cheers as he made 190kg in snatch. He had to be helped off stage when he injured his left leg on his first attempt in clean and jerk and did not make a total, but he still qualified. The top 10 in order were Talakhadze, Minasyan, Lalyan, Davoudi, Asaad, Ziaziulin, Abdelrahman, Yusur, Murakami and Walid Bidani from Algeria, who made 197-229-426 to improve his best total by 6kg. David Liti from New Zealand takes the continental slot. By Brian Oliver Photos by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia

Phuket, Day 11: Photo Gallery

All photos by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia [gallery size="large"