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Arabic Weightlifting Federation Elections

[caption id="attachment_28710" align="alignleft" width="300"] Mohamed Jaloud, Dr. Tamas Ajan and Mohamed Yousef Al-Mana[/caption] The Arabic Weightlifting Federation held its elections on 13 December in Amman, Jordan on the occasion of the Arab Senior, Junior and Youth Championships. The President Mr. Mohamed Yousef Al Mana (QAT), AWF President was re-elected unanimously for another term by the delegates of 19 countries present at the Election. Mr. Mohamed Jaloud (IRQ), IWF General Secretary's position as General Secretary of the Arabic Weightlifting Federation was also reassured for the next term. Congratulations to all the elected

Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games to Feature Historic Increase in Weightlifting

A meeting of the IOC Executive Board in Lausanne last week approved a significant increase in the quotas for young male and female weightlifters at the Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games. The total number of weightlifters will rise to 144, from 110 at Buenos Aires 2018, with an equal number of places for boys and girls. Six bodyweight categories will continue to apply to girls and six to boys. “In the space of just a few years, we have gone from questions over the place of weightlifting on the Olympic Programme to this significant show of confidence from the IOC,” said IWF President Tamas Ajan. “This remarkable progress is the result of a huge effort from so many people whose commitment to weightlifting has been truly humbling. And for the IWF, there could be no greater satisfaction than seeing the next generation of weightlifters being the first to benefit from greater Olympic opportunities.” Dakar 2022 bodyweight categories for boys will be 55kg, 61kg, 67kg, 73kg, 81kg, +81kg. For girls, they will be 45kg, 49kg, 55kg, 59kg, 64kg, +64kg. These bodyweight categories will be new for Dakar 2022 and reflect changes made for weightlifting competitions at the senior level. The changes in bodyweight categories formed part of a wide range of recommendations from the IWF Sport Programme Commission aimed at ensuring this new chapter in the sport’s history prioritises the achievements of clean athletes. “The IWF’s work to promote clean sport and protect clean athletes is far from over. Securing weightlifting’s place on the Olympic Programme and obtaining more chances for young weightlifters at the Youth Olympic Games is just the beginning,” continued Ajan. “The IWF is determined to ensure a lasting culture of clean weightlifting as a key characteristic of our sport at every

SHI Zhiyong set a new World Record at first day of IWF World Cup

The 2019 'Shengxin' IWF World Cup kicked off yesterday in Tianjin, China with the participation of 60 women and 52 men, representing 21 countries from all around the world. [caption id="attachment_28681" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Shi Zhiyong (Photo: Chinadaily/Xinhua)[/caption] As a highlight of day 1, Chinese weightlifter SHI Zhiyong set a new Clean and Jerk World Record in the men's 73kg bodyweight category and dominating the field, took all 3 gold medals with 363kg Total. "Although I broke the world record, I'm not satisfied with my form. And I would be more stable over the next few months," Shi said after the game to Asia Pacific Daily. In the men's 81kg, Olympic Champion LYU Xiaojun, still suffering from his back injury that happened at the World Championships in Pattaya, finished second place behind also Chinese competitor and silver medallist at the Worlds behind LYU, LI Dayin. The first day of the competition was stuffed with Chinese success, 2019 World Champion LI Fabin took all gold in the men's 63kg bodyweight category, with a Total of 311kg, while FENG Lyudong won the men's 67kg category and JIANG Huihua managed to overtake PRK star athlete RI Song Gum in the women's 49kg category. The IWF World Cup, which is also a Silver Level Qualification for the Tokyo Olympic Games will be ongoing until the 12th of December.

IWF and ITA representatives discussed plans for the future

On 3 December 2019, representatives of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) and the International Testing Agency (ITA) met at the ITA’s headquarter in Lausanne to evaluate the cooperation and discuss the future plans aimed at protecting clean athletes and promoting clean sport. The respective Directors General Attila Adamfi and Benjamin Cohen led their teams as the two organisations reviewed both the work already accomplished in 2019, and the future plans for 2020. “The IWF family continues to work hard to implement robust reforms in its anti-doping program and the discussions held today are encouraging as we continue to work in close cooperation to support and implement the many steps undertaken by IWF to promote a doping-free culture in the sport of weightlifting,” said ITA Director General Benjamin Cohen. “I believe the ITA has made a meaningful contribution towards ensuring the IWF maintains its position as a leader in the fight against doping as we head into an Olympic year and we are determined to see that this remains the case.” The partnership started on 1st January 2019 with out of competition testing, Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) and Education. The transfer concluded in September 2019, whereby all key areas have been transferred to ITA, including: detailed risk assessment, test distribution planning and management, in-competition testing, management of the IWF Athlete Biological Passport programme, results management, and long-term storage and re-analysis of samples. The ITA handled in-competition testing for the 2019 IWF World Championships for the first time, which included the collection and analysis of more than 300 samples. “I highly appreciate ITA’s contribution to an unprecedented busy year considering the record number of qualification events. Taking over such complex Anti-Doping Program during the Qualification Period was a great challenge, however ITA’s professionalism ensured the smooth and efficient transfer. I am confident that the cooperation of our committed teams will lead to a cultural change to ensure clean sport for future generation of Athletes,” said IWF Director General Attila

Executive Board makes further progress towards clean weightlifting

The IWF Executive Board has concluded a successful meeting in Lausanne. The meeting provided a chance to reflect on a successful 2019, while looking forward to next year and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Distinguished guests were welcome at the meeting: Mr. David Luckes, Associate Director of IOC Sport Department; Me Francois Carrard, the IWF’s Legal Advisor, Dr. Richard Young, Chairman of the Clean Sport Commission and the Independent Member Federation Sanctions Panel as well as Dr. Patrick Schamasch, Chairman of the IWF Anti-Doping Commission. The status of the Independent Member Federations Sanctions Panel was confirmed. In order to further improve independence, it was decided that in the future ITA will be requested to deal with the appointment of Panel Members. Mr. Brent Nowicki, Managing Counsel of CAS Anti-Doping Division (ADD) submitted a presentation to the Executive Board and, to further enhance the level of independence, the Board decided to cooperate with CAS ADD. That will ensure that only independent expert arbitrators adjudicate those cases where hearings are requested by the individuals concerned. The Executive Board also heard representatives of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (TAWA), who submitted a request to amend their Undertaking on “self-suspension” signed in March 2019. Whilst acknowledging the progress made by TAWA, the Executive Board, considering that the case initiated in Court by TAWA is not yet closed and that additional information is still expected from ITA concerning a number of individual cases, decided not to accept any modification to the Undertaking and that the Federation’s request will be considered at the next meeting. As a consequence of the CAS decision to uphold the Independent Member Federation Sanctioning Panel’s (IMFSP) decision on the suspension of Egypt, the EB reallocated the 2020 IWF Junior World Championships that was to be held in Cairo. Among 4 strong candidates (Georgia, Tbilisi; Greece, Hersonissos; Poland, Wladyslawowo and Romania, Bucharest) the Board’s decision fell on Bucharest (14-24 March 2020). Athlete welfare was in the focus of the Executive Board’s consideration when it laid down the foundations of Guidelines on Zero Tolerance, which aim to ensure protection from harassment and abuse, including sexual misconduct. The Board further received updates on the Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games and the idea of Power Games. “I am very pleased that the IWF Executive Board has displayed unity and wisdom when supporting the progressive proposals that confirm our commitment towards clean weightlifting, even more independence and credibility,” said IWF President Tamas

Issue 149 of WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING is published

WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING's No.149 issue has appeared in the 3 languages. This magazine is fully dedicated to the 2019 IWF World Championships in Pattaya, Thailand and brings full reports on all