News

The biggest weight ever lifted by a woman is now 188kg!

The ladies finished their World Championships with the +75kg category on the final day in Eilat. It was going to be a showdown between the 2012 Junior world champion, YAO Chi-Ling of Chinese Taipei and 2010 Asian Games winner and World Championships silver medallist MENG Suping of China. It soon turned out, however, that the Chinese was at a different “academic degree”, when she started to snatch at 130kg. Moreover, YAO missed all her attempts in the snatch and in the clean and jerk reached the same 130kg as the opening snatch lift for MENG... This difference became even more spectacular in the clean and jerk when MENG started at 173kg and with her second attempt of 180kg she came at merely 7kg of the world record set by JANG Mi-Ran three years ago. And in the third attempt the magnificent MENG Suping lifted a sensational new world record of 188kg! What a beautiful crown on this high-level event held in Israel 6-9 November

Favourites rebut challengers

When the men’s 85kg came around, there was no doubt that former Youth Olympic and junior champion Artem OKULOV (18 years old) from Russia had the biggest chance to win. In a large field of 16 lifters, he won the snatch by a large margin (162kg) and so did not have to fear the challenge coming from Armenian Aghasi AGHASYAN. Both jerked 195kg, this weight giving OKULOV another two gold medals, then, in a third attempt he chose to take on 203kg for a personal best. That weight escaped him this time – but not for long. Weightlifting at its best – that was the essence of the men’s 94kg competition, when the “bidding” went on for minutes backstage, kilo by kilo, without any of the lifters actually appearing on the platform to take an attempt. As in the books, each lift towards the end of the competition changed the order. Eventually, five lifters shared the medals. Lukasz Roman GRELA of Poland took the snatch gold medal on bodyweight ahead of Romanian Marius DANCIU and Russia’s Egor KLIMANOV. In the clean and jerk the Russian met a new challenger, Vardan DAVTYAN from Armenia. At the end of the tactical fight, both lifted 212kg and – having equally snatched 165kg and totalling 377kg – the overall gold medal was captured by KLIMANOV due to his slightly lighter

High class lifting continues on the University stage

With Korean WON Jeongsik and Artiom PIPA from Moldova as the protagonists, an exciting fight could be witnessed in the men’s 69kg category, where each lift changed the ranking order and the last one in clean and jerk finally proclaimed the Korean as the champion on bodyweight. Both lifters totalled 318kg and pushed Armenian AVETISYAN into third place with 315kg. The 77kg category was dominated by this year’s Junior world champion Dmitry KHOMYAKOV of Russia, who gained a comfortable lead in snatch to win overall with 338kg over Samvel GRIGORYAN of Armenia. Dumitru CAPTARI and Andrei BIRCA, both representing Moldova, shared the bronze medal winning and the fourth positions. The women also continued their competitions with the 63kg, which was won by Russian Natalya KHLESTKINA over Chinese XU Li. In the next category, the 69kg, Ya-Jhen WANG from Chinese Taipei was supreme with her 222kg against China’s CAI Xinghua who totalled 218kg. The 75kg show was awaited with great expectations as this category featured Olga ZUBOVA (RUS), former Youth Olympic, two-times Junior World and current European champion. Although the Russian lifter was challenged in the snatch by Brazil’s best, Jaqueline FERREIRA (both did 106kg), in the clean and jerk ZUBOVA flashed a little bit of her class and won hands down with a very light 135kg, registering a total of

Junior World Record at the University Worlds in Israel

Moldova and Japan among the men, China alone among the women have been supreme so far at the 3rd University World Championships in Eilat. Coming with a star-studded team including former Youth Olympic, world and junior world champions, the Chinese student squad contributes to the edge and high quality of the event. In the men’s field, Igor BOUR of Moldova became the first winner, followed, in the 62kg category, by Japanese Yoichi ITOKAZU. After two beautiful victories by Chinese HE Yunhua (in 48kg) and CHEN Xiaoting (in 53kg), former world, junior world and Youth Olympic champion DENG Wei presented us with a formidable performance on the second day into the Championships. Still just 19 years of age, DENG improved her own junior world record total to 244kg in the 58kg

3rd World University Championships taking off in Eilat

In Eilat, Israel’s popular and pleasant resort by the Red Sea, 145 competitors are ready to take on the challenge for the honours of the 3rd edition of the FISU World University Championships in weightlifting. The Start List includes 52 female participants from 19 countries and 93 male lifters from 26 countries, among them former Youth Olympic Champions and Junior World Champions as well as Universiade participants. Competitions will run from 6th to 9th November and a live scoreboard will be available on this

OCA to award 20 Olympic gold-winning athletes

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has named 20 Asian athletes who put in great performance at the 2012 London Olympic Games and won gold medals at the prestigious Games. The OCA will award the 20 gold medal-winning athletes at the OCA Banquet in Macau, China in a bid to celebrate their great success achieved at the summer Games. The athletes, including 10 female athletes and 10 males, will attend the ceremony along with the Asian NOCs’ officials scheduled to be held on November 8 to receive their prizes. Four weightlifters will be awarded: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Un Guk Kim, men’s 62kg weightlifting gold medalist Iran’s Behdad Salimi Kordasiabi, men’s +105kg weightlifting gold medalist Kazakhstan’s Ilya Ilyin, men’s 94kg weightlifting gold medalist Kazakhstan’s Zulfiya Chinshanlo, women’s 53kg weightlifting gold medalist Asia claimed 214 medals at the Olympic Games, with 20 countries winning 74 golds, 62 silvers and 78 bronze medals. Check the OCA website for more information. By Sarah Alambeigi, Member ISJA for