News

Junior World Championships preparations well underway with full support

IWF Director General Attila Adamfi and Competition Manager Matyas Lencser paid a technical visit to Fiji, host of the upcoming Junior World Championships to be held in Suva 1-8 June 2019. They have met with various stakeholders and have seen the progress made to host an event of this caliber. The JWC competition venue, the FMF Gymnasium will be prepared to host the Championships and the warm-up areas, while the National Fitness Centre will serve as the training venue. Sports equipment - provided by the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games provider ZKC - has been already arrived to host city.   The delegation appreciated that the training and competition venue is in the same area - a short walk away from each other, just as various accommodation options for athletes and visitors are about 10 minutes away from the venues. This will provide ideal conditions for the lifters to perform at their best - especially considering this event as an important milestone in the Qualification to Tokyo 2020. "The local Organizing Committee showed unprecedented cooperation in engaging the different stakeholders in organizing these Championships. I'm impressed by the collaboration that is being shown by the Whole of Government, Fiji Sports Council, Fiji National Sports Commission, ONOC, FASANOC, ORADO and Media Partners, Sponsors in delivering this Championships. I am also impressed by people of Fijis' support, " said Mr. Adamfi. The IWF Director General highlighted Dr. Robin Mitchel, the Chair of the Organising Committee and Mr. Atma Maharaj, President of Weightlifting Fiji for their tireless work delivering this World class event. Fiji already successfully hosted Oceania Championships in 2004, 2010 and 2016 and is the first Pacific country to be given the hosting rights of a IWF World

4th International Fajr Cup

A major qualification event for Tokyo 2020 was organized in Tehran, the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Iran in March this year. This was the fourth edition of the Fajr Cup, which was organized according to the new qualification method with the 7 new Olympic bodyweight categories. The field wasn’t big, 35 men weightlifter from 10 countries participated. The quality of the Cup was mainly secured by world-class Iranian weightlifters such as ROSTAMI Kianoush, HASHEMI Ali, DAVOUDI Ali and SOLEYMANI Alireza. The host country reached 461 points in the men’s team classification, with a significant advantage over Germany (362) and Iraq (283). In respect of individual performance, Olympic and World Champion Rostami was outstanding, who won the 2006 Rio Olympics in the 85kg bodyweight category, but this time competed in the 96kg category to win it all with 392kg Total. Iran had a superior victory on the medal table too with 9 golds, 4 silvers and 2 bronze. Germany came in second (5,1,4) and Iraq (3,1,4) next. Romania piled up 7 gold and 1 silver medal, while Latvia (1,6,2), Turkey (1,5,1), Jordan (0,3,4) and Turkmenistan (0,0,1) shared the rest of the

WHEREABOUTS REMINDER Q2

This is a reminder that every Athlete included in the International Registered Testing Pool (IRTP) shall submit their whereabouts information through the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) throughout the whole year on a quarterly basis. The deadline to submit for the second quarter (Q2) of 2019 is 31 March 2019. Please also note that Athletes who are not included in the IRTP but wish to compete at IWF Events shall provide whereabouts information for at least the two-month period prior to the Event. In case of an IWF World Championships, the length of this period is three months. Athletes who do not fulfil these criteria shall not be eligible to compete at the IWF Event in question. Should you encounter any technical difficulties please contact us

IWF Welcomes IOC Recognition of Comprehensive Anti-Doping Progress

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) welcomes the support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB) today, after it outlined its recognition for the IWF’s significant efforts to ensure clean sport and protect clean athletes. Considering the comprehensive work done by the IWF, the IOC EB decided at its meeting today to lift the status of conditional inclusion of weightlifting in the programme of the Olympic Games, Paris 2024, subject to finalisation of the agreement between the IWF and ITA and confirmation of a successful transition of key areas of the IWF anti-doping programme to ITA. “The IWF’s commitment to clean competition has transformed our sport. We see weightlifters competing in new bodyweight categories for new world records and from a wider variety of countries than ever before. Weightlifting is the only sport that specifically rewards countries that have a track record of clean competition with chances to compete at the Olympic Games thanks to our Tokyo 2020 qualifying system. And our commitment to culture change has seen the universal implementation of a widespread set of education programmes,” said IWF President Tamas Ajan. Measures adopted by the IWF included the suspension of nine members, considered to be high risk countries, whose athletes had constituted a disproportionately high number of anti-doping rule violations during the IOC’s retesting of stored samples from the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games. Innovative, advanced and additional testing continues to underpin the IWF’s efforts. “The IWF has only been able to achieve this progress with the help of many willing and expert partners, including the IOC, WADA, the ITA and USADA. We are very grateful to the members of the Independent Clean Sport Commission and our Anti-Doping Commission, together with all the staff and volunteers who have supported this transformation. With elements of our anti-doping programme already having been successfully transferred, I have no doubt that we will soon be able to fully establish our partnership with the ITA to the IOC’s complete satisfaction,” added

Stian Grimseth is the new President of NWF

Stian Grimseth, legendary lifter of his country was elected as President of Norwegian Weightlifting Federation. Mr Grimseth won the European Championships in 1996, competed twice at the Olympic Games (1996 and 2004) and several other national and international events. He won the Norwegian Championships in 2008 before retiring. He has been active on European an international level and hosted European Championships in his home city Forde. IWF wishes him successful activity in Norwegian

Stian Grimseth is the new President of NWF

Stian Grimseth, legendary lifter of his country was elected as President of Norwegian Weightlifting Federation. Mr Grimseth won the European Championships in 1996, competed twice at the Olympic Games (1996 and 2004) and several other national and international events. He won the Norwegian Championships in 2008 before retiring. He has been active on European an international level and hosted European Championships in his home city Forde. IWF wishes him successful activity in Norwegian