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Olympic champions from three different Games at three different weights will compete against each other at the IWF World Championships in Forde, Norway, which run from October 2-11.

Kianoush Rostami, who won at 85kg in Rio nine years ago, the Tokyo 96kg champion Meso Hassona, and the Paris 89kg winner Karlos Nasar are all in the A Group of the new 94kg category on October 9.

Nasar is 21 and has set more than 20 world records in the past two and a half years, during which time he has had seven major victories. Meso, from Qatar, is 27 and looking for improvement after a surprise bombout in Paris. Rostami won for Iran in Rio and is now making his debut for Kosovo at the age of 34 – his first international appearance in more than two years.

Karlos Nasar (BUL)

When he won his third European title in Moldova in April, Nasar was lifting in the old 96kg category but he weighed less than 94kg. He made 188-229-417, which would be enough for a sweep of world records in the new category by margins of 6kg in snatch, 7kg in clean and jerk and 20kg on total.

If Meso and Rostami can get within 15kg of Nasar it will be an achievement. Their respective career-best totals of 404kg and 403kg were made when they weighed about 96kg.

There are six Olympic champions in Forde, a good turnout given that none of China’s many winners at Rio, Tokyo and Paris will be there. They have either retired or are not entered during their preparations for the China National Games in November.

Meso Hassona (QAT)

There is another contest between Olympic champions at 110kg, this time both from the same country. Ruslan Nurudinov, the 33-year-old Rio 2016 winner at 105kg, goes head to head with his Uzbekistan team-mate Akbar Djuraev, the Tokyo 109kg gold medallist who is eight years younger.

Nurudinov was struggling with a back injury and talking of retirement 18 months ago, but he returned to his best at the World Championships in Bahrain last December. His 242kg clean and jerk world record left him 20kg clear of his nearest rival.

Ruslan Nurudinov (UZB)

Djuraev has competed only once since finishing second to Liu Huanhua in Paris, where he missed his last two clean and jerks. He has been in world record form in training, and the world standards of 195-237-427 look beatable by both men.

The sixth Olympic champion in Forde is Rizki Juniansyah, who also takes on a team-mate at 79kg. Three men in this category, competing at different weights, have already exceeded one or more of the world record targets of 166-203-362. They are Rizki, his fellow Indonesian Rahmat Erwin, and Ri Chong Song from PRK.

Rizki Juniansyah (INA)

There are plenty more top-quality athletes in what promises to be the most competitive session of the Championships. They include the Korean Son Hyeonho, the ever-improving American Caden Cahoy, who failed with a world record clean and jerk attempt at the Pan American Championships, the back-to-form Olympic medallist Julio Mayora from Venezuela, Yedige Yemberdi from Kazakhstan, Oscar Reyes from Italy and Mohamed Elsayed from Egypt.

There is a 26-year age range in Forde. The youngest athlete in the Championships, 14-year-old Mohammad Alotaibi from Kuwait, lifts in the first men’s session, the 60kg B Group, and on the penultimate day the 40-year-old Czech Olympian Kamil Kucera is in the super-heavyweight B Group.

By Brian Oliver