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Yerevan, Day 2: “I saw angels” says Romania’s second champion at European Championships

A few minutes before Andreea Cotruta won Romania’s second title of the weekend at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan, Armenia she was flat on her back after passing out. When she went for her second clean and jerk in the women’s 55kg, 19-year-old Cotruta cleaned it but collapsed before she could try and complete the lift. What happened? “I just don’t know,” she said. “I saw angels, I saw people flying around the hall and I fell.” The duty doctor rushed on to the stage but Cotruta was soon up on her feet and heading to the warm-up room. She had only a minute to recover for her final attempt at 110kg but was thinking, “I am not going to fail, I will make this lift,” she said. Cotruta drank plenty of water, had a few slaps from her coach to bring her back to the real world, went out and made the lift with no angels in sight. Her 91-110-201 equalled her career best but could still be beaten if the Ukrainian Svitlana Samuliak made her final attempt at 112kg. Sauliak failed, and Romania had its second winner in two days after the success at 49kg on Saturday of Cotruta’s favourite lifter, Mihaela Cambei. Samuliak made 90-109-199 and Izabella Yaylyan earned plenty of cheers from her home fans when she won Armenia’s first medals of the weekend, a sweep of bronzes on 87-109-196. Cotruta’s success meant that Romania was on the podium in all the first four events of the Championships, three for women and one for men. There was a sensational finish in the men’s 61kg when the two contenders for the title both made big jumps on their final attempt – and both made them. Sergio Massidda from Italy missed two of his snatches and his first clean and jerk, and with one attempt left he had to make up 8kg to take the lead from Shota Mishvelidze from Georgia. Massidda, 21, made it and looked the likely winner given that Mishvelidze had made 155kg in clean and jerk in his past five competitions at this weight, and was sitting on 155kg with one lift to come. Mishvelidze, 28, had to go up 7kg to 162kg and he also made it, fairly comfortably. Asked whether he had believed he would do it he said, “Yes, I was confident because this time I was not suffering any injury.” He has had surgery on his shoulder, elbow and knee and now he is clear of problems and fully fit. Mishvelidze made five good lifts for 136-162-298, a career best at 61kg. Massidda made 130-162-292 and third place went to Ivan Dimov of Bulgaria on 127-150-277, with his team-mate Gabriel Marinov taking clean and jerk bronze on 154kg after failing with all three snatches. After the men’s 55kg Angel Rusev stood down from the podium clasping his medals and shouting, “Three times European champion!” The ultra-consistent 21-year-old Bulgarian has made totals between 250kg and 258kg seven times in his 10 competitions as a senior, three of which won him continental titles. Rusev, Europe’s top finisher at this weight in sixth place at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Bogotá, Colombia in December declined his final attempt after making 109-141-250 to complete the hat-trick. The man he beat into second place looked just as happy as Rusev, which was not surprising given that it was the first time on the podium for Ramini Shamishvili from Georgia, after 12 years as an international weightlifter. “Yes, it was a long wait – there are no words to describe how I feel,” said Shamishvili, 28, who had finished between fourth and eighth place in seven European Championships before today. All those efforts came at a heavier weight, either 61kg or 62kg, and the hard work to try at 55kg paid off. “I didn’t eat, more sauna, more training – it was very hard but I always trusted in myself that I could win a medal and now I will keep working to win more medals in the future,” he said. Would he be celebrating with a big meal? “Oh yes,” he laughed. Shamishvili made 113-136-249 for snatch gold, clean and jerk bronze and silver on total, ahead of the Romanian Valentin Iancu on 109-136-245. Muammer Sahin from Turkey took silver in the snatch, in which Rusev was fourth best but clearly happy with 109kg, celebrating as if he knew he would go on to win overall. By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photos by

Yerevan, Day 1: First ever medal for Ireland and records for Romania at European Weightlifting Championships

Thammy Nguyen, who gave up competing for nearly seven years to start a business and a family, was in floods of tears after winning Ireland’s first ever European Championships medal in senior weightlifting. Ireland’s coaches Harry Leech and Beata Jung were also overcome after Nguyen’s remarkable effort in the women’s 49kg on the opening day of the 2023 continental championships in Yerevan, Armenia, an Olympic qualifier. “The main thing I keep thinking about is fate,” Nguyen said after the medal ceremony, before detailing a series of events that led to her moving into the top 20 in the rankings for Paris 2024. Her parents moved the family to Ireland when Thammy was seven, and after trying CrossFit as a teenager she swiftly moved into weightlifting with one thing in mind: competing at the Olympic Games. After a promising start she lifted at the IWF World Championships – the first Irish female to do so – in 2015, but in the summer of 2016 she stopped competing. In the next few years she got married, started a couple of businesses with her husband Mark Gough, had two children – Lilly, now four and Marc, two – and was “a bit of an entrepreneur”. She and Mark now run a CrossFit gym in north Dublin. While all this was happening Nguyen’s brother Nhat became an elite badminton player and made the Ireland team for the Tokyo Olympic Games. “When he went off to the Olympics, that was when I knew I had to come back into weightlifting,” Nguyen said. “I asked his coach, a Malaysian, ‘I don’t suppose you know any weightlifting coaches do you?’ and he said he’d come back to me.” He was true to his word, and recommended his friend Faizal Baharom who lifted for Malaysia at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. “I hired him to come over to Ireland and coach me. “He arrived in January 2022, when I got really serious about training, and I wouldn’t let him go home. “I owe thanks to everyone in my family, to my husband, to other coaches but the fact is without Faizal I wouldn’t be here today. “Now I just want to go to the Olympic Games with my brother.” By making her final attempt at 98kg after an earlier “good lift” decision at the same weight had been overturned by the jury, Nguyen became the first Irish female to lift twice her own bodyweight and its first senior medallist, taking bronze in clean and jerk. The only other medal Ireland has ever won was a silver in the European Juniors in 2013, claimed by the social media fitness phenomenon Clarence Kennedy, who never lifted in competition again after that event. Nguyen was overcome in the warm-up room after her final lift and tearfully asked several times for confirmation that she was guaranteed a medal. Her 75-98-173 was a career best, placing her fifth on total. The impressive winner was Mihaela Cambei from Romania, who had a sweep of golds and two continental records in snatch and total, making a six-from-six 92-106-198. Giulia Imperio from Italy was second on 83-100-183 and Anhelina Lomachynska of Ukraine third on 81-95-176. This was a first senior title for Cambei, 21, who has been youth and junior European champion and who was the top European finisher in the IWF World Championships in Colombia in December, when she was fourth with a 194kg total. Romania had the highest European finisher at those World Championships in all the three lightest weight categories for women – Adriana Pana at 45kg, Cambei at 49kg and Andreea Cotruta at 55kg – as well as a world record victory for Loredana Toma at 71kg. In the first medal event of the day at 45kg Pana finished second to Turkey’s Cansu Bektas, who had a sweep of European junior records on 72-90-162. Bektas, a 19-year-old who has won world and European youth and junior titles, improved on last year’s second place to claim her first senior title. Pana made 70-83-153 for silver ahead of another 19-year-old, Marta Garcia from Spain, who had a career-best 68-85-153. Cotruta lifts at 55kg on Sunday evening and has the joint highest entry total of 205kg. It was also a memorable day for Portugal, back in the weightlifting fold after more than two decades of exile. Nair Rosas Pinto, a forensic doctor from northern Portugal, did not start weightlifting until  she was 30. Now 37, Rosas Pinto made the first lift of the Championships and the first by a Portuguese lifter in international competition since 2001. The old Portuguese Federation, which last sent a team to the European Championships in 1999, had “legal issues and no support” said Paulo Antunes, national coach and secretary of the newly formed federation that gained full membership of the EWF this year. “At one point we had only four clubs, we nearly died and it was Masters weightlifting that kept us alive,” Antunes said. Portuguese federation president Vitor Estevao said, “Now we have nearly 70 clubs, including in the Azores and Madeira, and almost 700 athletes. “We all work as volunteers and becoming full members has given us a big jump up.” Rosas Pinto went on to make six from six in the women’s 45kg B Group, making 44-58-102. “Maybe I’m too cautious with my numbers – I’ve had six from six a few times,” said Rosas Pinto, who did not practise any sport until a work colleague suggested she try CrossFit. “I was lucky that there was a weightlifting coach at the gym and I’ve been training ever since.” By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photos by Brian Oliver 

Pizzolato can help Italy bounce back at European Championships

Italy had a desperate time at weightlifting’s first qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games but they can do far better in their second attempt. Antonino Pizzolato, one of five current world record holders from Europe and one of three Italian medallists at the Tokyo Olympic Games, returns from injury to lift at the eagerly awaited European Championships in Armenia starting on Saturday. At nearly 1,000m above sea level, host city Yerevan is Europe’s second highest capital. Altitude sickness will not be a problem at the Karen Demirchyan Complex, though, as it was when three Italians bombed out along with many others in the first Olympic qualifier in Colombia four months ago. At the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships, held 2,600m above sea level in Bogotá, Pizzolato was an absentee and the Tokyo medallist Mirko Zanni, Youth Olympic Games champion Cristiano Ficco and European silver medallist Lucrezia Magistris all failed to make a total. None of their four team-mates made the podium and the entire team of seven made only 12 good lifts between them. But Italy were far from alone in suffering in a competition that featured more no-lifts than good lifts. Having won more medals than any other European nation in Tokyo, improving Italy can follow up with their best European Championships performance in decades. After his three snatch failures in Colombia, Zanni said it was “a source of pride for me” to recover well from a disappointing performance. “You can only improve what is to come, not what has already been done,” he said. “Despair makes no sense and you always have to move forward and improve.” Zanni is a very strong contender at 73kg and by the time he lifts on Tuesday Italy may already have been on top of the podium. Over the weekend Sergio Massidda, fourth in Colombia despite making only two good lifts, looks strongest at 61kg and in the women’s 49kg Giulia Imperio attempts to add to the junior and senior titles she won last year. Lucrezia Magistris and Giulia Miserendino have chances at 59kg and 71kg respectively, while Oscar Reyes at 81kg and Ficco at 96kg are also capable of winning medals. Pizzolato versus Karlos Nasar at 89kg could be one of the highlights of the week but as both men need a total to figure in the Olympic rankings it might not match last year’s epic contest in Albania, when the Italian set a world record on total of 392kg. Nasar, from Bulgaria, holds the clean and jerk world record at 81kg and 89kg but he also bombed out in Colombia and needs to snatch well. This is Bulgaria’s first competition since a change of leadership at its federation. New president Arif Majed and his board have voted to appoint a temporary coaching team led by the long-time but apparently outgoing head coach Ivan Ivanov. Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and hosts Armenia – all of whom won World Championships medals - have entered formidable teams, and Romania has a very strong line-up in the women’s events. Armenia will have high hopes in all the heavier men’s events and there will be plenty for home fans to cheer later next week. The other three European world record holders besides Pizzolato and Nasar are Lasha Talakhadze from Georgia, Simon Martirosyan from Armenia and Loredana Toma from Romania, the only non-Asian with a current women’s world record after she set a new 71kg snatch mark of 119kg in Colombia. Talakhadze against Varazdat Lalyan, the outstanding 23-year-old Armenian, and his team-mate Martirosyan in the super-heavyweights should be a fitting finale to the Championships on April 23. Britain’s Emily Campbell, an Olympic silver medallist, is clear favourite in the women’s super-heavyweights. One of the most competitive sessions could be the men’s 102kg, a class in which Europe did well in the World Championships by having five finishers in the top 10. Nobody has made 400kg in qualifying yet but two young Armenians, Samvel Gasparyan and Garik Karapetyan, made early entry totals of 400kg before Gasparyan moved up to 109kg in search of more gold for the hosts. In what should still be a high-quality session Karapetyan lines up against the reigning champion David Fischerov from Bulgaria, Marcos Ruiz from Spain, Arturs Plesnieks from Latvia, Vasil Marinov from Bulgaria, Tudor Bratu from Moldova and Giorgi Chkheidze from Georgia, among others. All of this comes with a caveat, which will be the case throughout the entire qualifying period: it all depends on individual athletes actually competing rather than merely meeting their anti-doping requirements, weighing in and waving to the crowd without attempting a lift. The single best total in a minimum of five “participations” will count in qualifying for Paris, so anybody not feeling 100 per cent need not risk lifting, as was the case in Bogotá when Olympic champion Shi Zhiyong and Tian Tao from China sat it out. Chinese Taipei was among nine other nations whose athletes did not lift after weighing in at the World Championships, and in the Pan American Championships in Argentina last month the Canadian Olympian Boady Santavy weighed in without lifting. By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games

IWF in mourning – Rolf Maier (FRA)

The IWF learnt with great sadness about the recent loss of Rolf Maier, distinguished member of the French weightlifting community, at the age of 86. Mr Maier took part in three editions of the Olympic Games – Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968 – and was bronze medallist in the 75kg category at the 1965 European Championships. Having developed most of his career in the region of Picardy, he left a strong legacy in the sport in France: one of the weightlifting national training centres for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is named after him. Moreover, under his technical guidance, Daniel Senet was crowned world champion in snatch in 1981, a competition held in Lille (FRA). In this moment of grief, the IWF addresses its heartfelt condolences to his family and friends, as well as to the entire French weightlifting

The IWF Refugee Team is now ready to work! 

After the deadline for applications (March 25) and the recent approval by the Executive Board, the IWF has the pleasure to announce that its Refugee Team will be constituted of four women and three men, as well as a designated coach. The female representatives of the team are: Parisa Jahanfekrian, originally from Iran, but now residing in Germany, Clementine Meukeugni Noumbissi (Cameroon/Great Britain), Aline de Souza (Brazil/USA), and Monique Lima de Araujo (Brazil/USA).   Among men, Addriel Garcia (Cuba/Italy), Fawaz Mohammed Saleh Hussein (Yemen/Saudi Arabia), and Reza Rouhi (Iran/Great Britain) will complete the Refugee Team. The coach of this group of athletes will be Patric Bettembourg, presently the Head Coach of the youth and junior Swedish team.   After this official nomination, the Refugee Team will enter into a preparation and training plan in order to attend the major IWF events.   Eleiko, one of the IWF licenced providers of barbells and disks, will be an important partner in this programme, as the Swedish company will provide the accommodation and full board costs for all participants in a training camp (up to two weeks) to be held at Eleiko’s headquarters.   In terms of National Federations, the host of the upcoming IWF World Championships – Saudi Arabia – already confirmed that it will also support this programme.    As a reminder, and to be part of this team, athletes had to be recognised as refugees or beneficiaries of international protection, in accordance with the criteria established by the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. After this approval by the IWF, the Refugee Team will compete under the acronym WRT, will use the official IWF flag, and is subject to the IWF Anti-Doping Rules. Athletes and coach will have to follow and complete the WADA ADEL online course and other educational programmes deemed necessary for their

World Youths success for Turkey, Kazakhstan and Thailand “shows we have good future” says IWF President Jalood

When Tuana Suren (TUR) won the final women’s contest of the 2023 IWF World Youth Championships in Durres, Albania on Saturday she made sure that Turkey would finish top of the medals table. Of the 57 nations that sent athletes to Durres, 30 had athletes on the podium. Among those who performed well were several nations that had something in common – they were either banned outright from the Tokyo Olympic Games or lost athlete quotas because of multiple doping violations. They included table-topping Turkey, plus the nations with the best female and male individual performers, Thailand and Kazakhstan. Armenia won 15 medals, and both Egypt and Vietnam had world record breakers among their champions. The success of these teams is good for weightlifting because it shows that they have changed their ways. Who says so? Mohammed Jalood, President of the IWF, who watched proudly in Durres. “I am very happy to see that many countries that historically were doping are changing their culture,” he said. “We have seen them win a lot of medals here, showing that they have been creating new generations of weightlifters for three or four years. In that time they have had zero doping.” Weightlifters in Kazakhstan and India, among others, have been suspended in the past year or two but they have been rooted out by their own National Anti-Doping Organisations. “This did not happen before, champions were not always tested,” Jalood said. “This shows that we are changing as a sport, we had problems in the past but we have a good future.” Jalood was impressed with Turkey. “They have such a strong history in weightlifting. They have created a very good development programme and are going well.” Talat Unlu president of the Turkish Weightlifting Federation, said there were nearly 1,000 weightlifters in Turkey aged under 15, that development had improved since the opening of the Olympic Training Centre eight years ago, that performance monitoring took place regularly and that the sport was well funded by the Turkish government. “We expected to win plenty of medals here,” he said. “Our development is good, we expect to send full teams of men and women to Moldova in July for the European Under-15 and Youth Championships. We are doing better now, as you saw with Tuana here.” Jalood highlighted Canada as “a special success” of the Championships after two 12-year-olds, Ivy Buzinhani Brustello and Emily Ibanez Guerrero, became the youngest ever champion and youngest ever medallist in international weightlifting. Etta Love’s gold, silver and bronze in the women’s +81kg on the final day took her nation up to eighth in the medals table. The IWF President correctly predicted that Shams Mohamed Ahmed (EGY) would set a world record in the women’s 81kg and expects strong results from Egypt in the coming years. Vietnam had a record breaker when K’Duong (VIE) had a sweep of world records in the men’s 55kg. That was very impressive, scoring 402 Sinclair points on the all-weights rating system – but Nikita Abdrakhmanov (KAZ) did even better. He notched 407 Sinclair points when he won the men’s 102kg by 64kg and said he could do better still. The top Sinclair scorer among the women was Thanaporn Saetia (THA), the 64kg winner who is hoping to lift in the senior Asian Championships next month. She weighed less than 62kg and scored 274 points. By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Read also: In the footsteps of great Lasha – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Durres, Final Day: Egg producer helps Etta to put Canada on the podium again – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Jet lag, some solitude, but still a medal! – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Durres, Day 7: Kazakhstan teenager wins world title by 64kg and says “I can do better” – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   The healing power of sport – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Durres, Day 6: Teenager and 77-year-old show Italy is on right path for weightlifting success – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   The national sport in Turkmenistan? Weightlifting, of course! – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Durres, Day 5: Golden double for Thailand as five more nations join medals table  – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   The weightlifting clan from Amazonia – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Durres, Day 4: World youth medallists show that weightlifting is a family business – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   From grassroots to the Olympics – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Durres, Day 3: Canada does it again as 12-year-old Emily becomes weightlifting’s youngest ever medallist – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Building a renewed weightlifting in India – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Durres, Day 2: World records for Vietnam – and “Tokyo effect” spurs on Philippines and Turkmenistan – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   The age of all dreams – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Durres, Day 1: 12-year-old Ivy takes gold for Canada to become weightlifting’s youngest ever world champion – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Youth global showcase is officially open in Albania! – International Weightlifting Federation (iwf.sport)   Colombian Segura seeks third world title as top teenagers go for gold in Abania – International Weightlifting Federation