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IWF Grand Prix II in Doha (QAT): Preliminary Entries due on September 4!

The preliminary entries for the IWF Grand Prix II, to be held in Doha (QAT) from December 4-14, 2023 are to be sent until September 4, 2023 – three months before the start of the competition, a qualification event for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris (FRA). All the IWF Member National Federations have received updated information on this matter, namely the following timeline: September 4, 2023 – Deadline for Preliminary Entries / Whereabouts information November 4, 2023 – Deadline for Final Entries November 14, 2023 – Deadline for participating Member Federations (MF) to transfer 100% of total payment concerning accommodation and entry fees to the Organising Committee. The non-respect of this deadline may lead to the ineligibility of the concerned athletes December 2, 2023 – Verification of Final Entries (online) At the Preliminary Entry stage, MFs can register up to 20 athletes per gender even though the final number of competitors can only be a maximum of 10 athletes (+2 Reserves) per gender, which are to be selected by the Final Entry deadline. After the preliminary registration, no more athletes can be entered by the MFs.ENTRIES CAN ONLY BE REGISTERED VIA THE IWF ONLINE ENTRY SYSTEM AT: https://mf.iwf.sport Relevant documents: COMPETITION REGULATIONS Accommodation & Transportation

Riyadh, Preview: Stellar cast can make it a World Championships for the ages as Saudi Arabia plays host for first time

An impressive array of top-quality athletes, coupled with the event’s wider importance in Olympic qualifying, can make the 2023 IWF World Championships one to remember. Saudi Arabia hosts the IWF’s flagship event for the first time at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Olympic Complex in Riyadh, the capital city, where more than 700 athletes will take part from September 4-17. They include all 20 current world champions, the 13 Tokyo Olympic gold medallists who are still competing, 17 world record holders and a host of continental champions. Everybody who is intent on competing at Paris 2024 must travel to Riyadh because this is the first of two mandatory events in qualifying, where athletes must participate. Those who are not fully fit, or who are going to the Asian Games and worried about competing twice in a month, can choose to weigh in without lifting, which 27 athletes have done. They include champions and record breakers Maude Charron from Canada, Mirabai Chanu from India, Lesman Paredes from Bahrain, Loredana Toma from Romania and Karlos Nasar from Bulgaria. Despite their absence, the line-up in Riyadh is of the highest quality. China, the sport’s global powerhouse, sends its strongest team and unlike last year all the big names are expected to lift. Shi Zhiyong (CHN) There is a welcome return for Shi Zhiyong, who has been injured and has not lifted since winning gold at 73kg in the Tokyo Olympic Games more than two years ago. He is due to compete in the 81kg C Group. Whether because of fitness concerns or tactics, Shi is not the only Olympic champion listed in a C Group. Kuo Hsing-Chun from Chinese Taipei, the 59kg winner in Tokyo, is another, and several more big-name athletes are in B and C Groups. One, the 55kg world champion and multiple junior world record holder Seeraphong Silachai from Thailand, is in the 61kg D Group. The A Groups could be closely contested classic sessions regardless. At 102kg, five men have posted entry totals of 400kg or more, including the Olympic champion Meso Hassona from Qatar and two Armenians, Samvel Gasparyan and the teenager Garik Karapetyan. Nobody eligible for Paris has yet made 400kg in qualifying. There is an Uzbekistan head-to-head between an Olympic champion and a world record holder when Akbar Djuraev and Ruslan Nurudinov contest the men’s 109kg. In the men’s super-heavyweights all eight athletes in the A Group, the final session of the Championships on September 17, have entry totals of 440kg or more. There is quality in the lighter weights too. In the women’s 49kg three women in the simplified rankings for Paris have made 200kg or more, one of whom, Chanu, has declared that she will not lift. Seven women have posted entry totals of 200kg or more in Riyadh. Only two men have made 300kg or more in qualifying at 61kg. Even though one of them, Eko Yuli Irawan from Indonesia, has gone up to 67kg at the World Championships, 10 athletes have an entry total of 300kg or more. Besides Saudi Arabia, the only two nations sending maximum teams of 20 are the United States and Colombia, while Korea and Mexico send 19 athletes, and China and Spain 18. Canada, Armenia, Japan, Thailand, Hungary, Iran, Thailand, Chinese Taipei and Turkmenistan have teams of 14 or more. The 20-year-old Korean Park Hyejeong will be one to watch as she attempts the rare feat of making a 300kg total in the women’s super-heavyweights, having made 295kg last time out at the Asian Championships. Park Hyejeong (KOR) Colombia’s team includes the 59kg world champion Yenny Alvarez and Olympic silver medallist Luis Javier Mosquera, who has not made a lift in qualifying to date because of a serious wrist injury and is due to compete in the 73kg B Group. Egypt appears to have the strongest team from the Arab world and should get plenty of support. Its top hopes are Sara Samir at 76kg, Neama Said at 71kg and Karim Abokahla in the men’s 96kg. The International Technical Officials are going to be busy. There are 66 sessions, and the longest days will run from 0700 until about 2330, from first weigh-in to last lift. By Brian Oliver, Inside the

Don’t miss the Anti-Doping Education Seminar in Riyadh!

Less than a week before the start of the IWF World Championships, our International Federation is delighted to be partnering with the International Testing Agency (ITA) at the 2023 IWF World Championships in Riyadh (KSA) to deliver an Anti-Doping Education Seminar, taking place on September 9, at 10am (exact location to be confirmed). An ITA Education Ambassador, two times Olympic medallist from Canada, Ms. Christine Girard will deliver a presentation for all interested about clean sport. Moreover, all participants will leave with a nice surprise gift! Finally, an IWF/ITA Information Booth will be available at the venue from September 9-11 for all those who would like to take part in interesting anti-doping activities! Bring your team and friends and come to learn more about our ILiftClean programme! Quizzes, useful information and practical tips are provided to all lifters and support personnel, giving in a very pedagogic way very useful insights on our anti-doping rules and procedures. A similar initiative was successfully held last March, on the occasion of the IWF World Youth Championships in Durres (ALB). Back then, many young athletes filled the room of the Seminar and made a stop at the informative booth. The 2023 IWF World Championships will be held in Saudi Arabia, from September 4-17, gathering around 700 competitors from 120 nations. It is the most important IWF event of the year and it also constitutes a qualification opportunity for the 2024 Olympic Games in

“Weightlifting Changed my Life”: A lesson of life in Honduras and in Jordan! 

It is often said that sport can be a tool for social success, or even more importantly a way of changing the lives of those practicing it. This is already a nice declaration on paper, but it becomes really interesting when concrete examples of the positive change sport may bring to the athletes are shown. Through an inspiring video – “Weightlifting Changed my Life” – the IWF went to Honduras and Jordan to talk about these young competitors, who saw their lives transformed thanks to their passion for the sport.   In the streets of Tegucigalpa, and in some of the most marginalised neighbourhoods of the Honduran capital, Axel Pavon, Emelin Ortiz, Jorge Hernandez, and Sofia Aleman tell us about their existences before and after weightlifting entered into their lives. Influenced by family or friends, they all underline the powerful impact the sport brought to their existence.   “This sport helped me a lot as it prevented me from going down the wrong path. It also made me a more mature and tougher person,” considers Ortiz, who had also fought against the discrimination against women in weightlifting. Aleman also had a “bumpy road, but it was sure worth it!” In her case, weightlifting decisively helped her overcome a serious depression episode. “It literally saved my life”.   Pavon talks about the power of the sport as a “ray of hope for many people at social risk”, while Hernandez is an athlete, but works at the same time in his own house construction company. “I come from a poor environment, but I didn’t want to remain like that. I wanted to have a better life than the ones my parents experienced. I refused the status of ‘being poor’ for my entire life. Weightlifting was essential in this process.”   On the other side of the planet, in Amman, weightlifting had also a major importance in the lives of many young athletes. Adlah Hasonh, sisters Rama and Rahima Hijazi, and Weam Qandeel are four female athletes that had to overcome the stigmatisation of the sport for women and are today promising talents in Jordan’s national team.   “I didn’t like the sport in the beginning, but when I started competing, I fell in love with it!” confesses Qandeel. “I know that through our example, we are a role model for some people,” she adds. The Hijazi siblings agree that weightlifting reinforced their confidence, while their mother Rania confesses: “I had to research about the effects of the sport on the woman’s body. And it soon became evident that there was absolutely no risk to their health. Today, I encourage my daughters and I am happy with their evolution.”   In Al-Manara, Asem and Raad Alsallaj are brothers and also share a passion for weightlifting. “It’s a family business, our father was a lifter, and we are trained by our uncle. Our destiny was to be in this sport. But we love it and we support each other.”   Get inspired by these examples of devotion and discover the power of weightlifting in the lives of these young athletes! Enjoy our video

Three days more for Verification of Final Entries for Riyadh 2023!

IWF Member Federations entered for the 2023 IWF World Championships have until this Monday, August 21, at 12h00 (noon) CET to proceed to the verification of their final entries, submitted by July 4, 2023. In this last step before the participation of their teams in Riyadh (KSA), National Member Federations may confirm or delete the participation of their athletes, but they can also choose the option “Only Weigh-in”. This possibility was introduced to ensure that the list of athletes announced after the verification of final entries corresponds to the number of lifters effectively competing in A sessions. This relates with the importance of the IWF World Championships and the associated TV exposure and visibility of those sessions. The idea is to minimise the eventual time differences between what is programmed and scheduled for TV purposes and what is the real duration of each A session. After the August 21 deadline for verification of final entries, no further changes can be made to the data submitted by the IWF Member Federations. This procedure can be made through the IWF E-Entry System (link

Improving the level in Myanmar

The Myanmar Weightlifting Federation (MWF) recently organised, with the support of the IWF and Olympic Solidarity, a five-day course for national coaches and ITO’s, at the Multi-Purpose Hall in Nay Pyi Taw. More than 20 officials were able to get updated on technical relevant information concerning weightlifting, in a course lectured by Ms Aphinya Dattuyawat, from Thailand, former Asian champion and Olympian. He was assisted by Mr Myo Min (MYA), MWF Deputy Secretary General, Mr Htet Wai (MYA), Deputy Director for the Sports and Physical Education department in charge of Myanmar Anti-Doping Agency, and by Ms Ei Ei Mon (MYA), Assistant Director for Sports and Physical Education and International Relations of the Myanmar National Olympic Committee.   After an Opening Ceremony led by the President of the Myanmar NOC, Mr U Min Thein Zan, all participants took part in theoretical and practical sessions, focusing on several areas: safety, basic training, competition readiness, event rules and regulations, refereeing, video playback technology, psychology and anti-doping education.   According to the MWF, the course – held from August 7-11 – was a “complete success” and was well received by all coaches and officials. The workshop sessions, where the level of exchange of information and experience was higher, were particularly appreciated. Finally, all participants were able to pass with distinction (with an average of over 90%) the theory exam at the end of the course.     “The MWF would like to thank the IWF, the IOC Olympic Solidarity, the Myanmar Olympic Committee, and the Thai Weightlifting Federation for their valuable support in developing a new generation of coaches and officials in our country, thus creating better conditions for the lifters in the