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Bahrain, Day 3: PRK star needs world record to beat newcomer team-mate – and Turkiye celebrates double success

A spectacular contest between PRK team-mates was the highlight on day three of the IWF World Championships in Bahrain, which featured three more world records and the first medals on total for Europe. PRK won both events, 67kg for men and 55kg for women, and claimed one of those world records. Turkiye had a double success in the men’s contest when Kaan Kahriman broke a junior world record and Yusuf Fehmi Genc finished third on total. There were six junior world record attempts in the women’s evening session but only one was successful, a clean and jerk by third-placed Aleksandra Grigoryan from Armenia. Ri Won Ju (PRK) Five minutes before the end of the 67kg contest it looked as if the clean and jerk world record holder and multiple winner Ri Won Ju would be beaten by 21-year-old Pak Pyol, who had never lifted internationally before today. Pak won snatch gold and still led by 4kg with two attempts remaining. He missed the first, a world record clean and jerk attempt at 190kg. Ri then made 190kg to improve his own world record by 1kg. Aleksandra Grigoryan (ARM) Out came Pak to try again at 191kg, which would have given him the world record on total too. He failed, leaving Ri with a five-from-six 146-190-336 for his fourth straight victory. Pak made 150-182-332, and the PRK pair finished clear of Genc on 146-181-327. Zheng Xinhao from China, the snatch silver medallist, was fourth on 148-176-324. Kahriman took snatch bronze on 148kg, a junior world record, and finished fifth on 148-175-323. Kaan Kahriman (TUR) Hector Garcia from Colombia, who was off the international stage for seven years until this year, made a career-best 145-164-309 in the B Group for sixth place. Garcia, who suffered persistent knee problems, finished second in this year’s Pan American Championships on 292kg and made a big improvement here despite failing with his final two attempts at 170kg. Eko Yuli Irawan (INA) Eko Yuli Irawan from Indonesia, who failed in his attempt to become the first weightlifter to win medals at five Olympic Games when he bombed out in Paris, made his first total in 15 months. Irawan, back for more at the age of 35, started low and looked happy after making 131-161-292 in the B Group. After making a total in 36 successive international competitions spanning 17 years, that Paris disappointment was the fourth straight clean and jerk bombout for Irawan, who had been suffering with knee and thigh injuries. Kang Hyon Gyong, who has set seven world records at 55kg since PRK returned to the international stage 15 months ago, went for an eighth with her final attempt on 132kg but failed. She was 15kg clear regardless, finishing 100-126-226 and making it four wins in two days for her team. Kang Hyon Gyong (PRK) Last year’s winner, Chen Guan-Ling from Chinese Taipei, was second on 93-118-211 and European champion Grigoryan third on 85-120-205, a career-best by 9kg. Zhang Haiqin from China, making her international debut, was second in snatch but failed with all three junior world record attempts at 122kg in clean and jerk. Garance Rigaud from France was fourth on 91-110-201, just ahead of the B Group lifter Onome Didih from Nigeria, who made a big impression despite making only two good lifts. “This was my first international competition, I enjoyed it,” said Didih after her 90-110-200, which was better than four A Group athletes. “My next one should be the Commonwealth Championships in India in August.” Onome Didih (NGR) Given that Didih, 20, finished ahead of athletes from five Commonwealth nations – India, Canada, Australia, Ghana and Malta – she already looks a likely medal contender for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, especially if she opts for the new 53kg category. Didih was within 1kg of the African clean and jerk record when she made her final lift at 115kg, but she lost it on jury review for bending and extending. By Brian Oliver Photos by

Bahrain, Day 2: Photo Gallery

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Bahrain, Day 2: Two golds and big numbers for PRK – and more world records for a China newcomer

PRK went to the top of the medals table, where they are expected to remain, by winning both medal events on day two of the IWF World Championships in Bahrain. Their champions, Ri Song Gum in the women’s 49kg and Pak Myong Jin in the men’s 61kg, posted impressive numbers, as did China’s international debutant Xiang Linxiang. All three made totals that would have been good enough for a place on the podium at the Paris Olympic Games, where these two weights were on the programme. Xiang was not in China’s Olympic qualifying team, while PRK athletes were not eligible because they did not return from a lengthy Covid-related absence in time to qualify for Paris. None of the six Olympic medallists at these weights lifted here today. Ri Song Gum (PRK) Ri missed three of her six lifts, two of which were world record attempts, but she held off a strong challenge from Xiang, who set four junior world records. Ri’s winning total of 213kg was 7kg more than Xiang’s team-mate Hou Zhihui made for gold in Paris four months ago. Pak Myong Jin was the only man to surpass 300kg in the 61kg session, finishing well clear of Aniq Kasdan from Malaysia, who had finished fourth in Paris. A Chinese newcomer had gone head-to-head with one of PRK’s many women’s world record holders on Friday. Zhao Jinhong surprised multiple winner Won Hyon Sim at 45kg, taking two of her world records and finishing 9kg clear. Today, 20-year-old Xiang marked herself out as a serious contender in the coming years but she could not stop Ri claiming  PRK’s first victory of the Championships. Xiang Linxiang (CHN) Xiang took China’s tally to eight world records in two days, four senior and four junior, when she made 92-120-212, a 5kg improvement on her best domestic total this year. She set junior records in clean and jerk and total twice when she made 117kg and 120kg with her final two attempts. Ri was not so lucky with her world record attempts, failing with a 98kg snatch and a 126kg clean and jerk. She made 91-122-213. Finishing ahead of Chinese athletes is special for Ri. She had to wait a long nine years from the Youth Olympic Games in 2014, when she was 16, to get the better of Jiang Huihua or her team-mate and double Olympic champion Hou Zhihui. Ri has beaten both and set seven world records since September last year. Now she will have to improve again to contend with Xiang’s challenge. Xiang improved the junior world records, previously held by Jiang Huihua, by 6kg in both clean and jerk and total. Rosegie Ramos from the Philippines was third, 20kg behind Ri on 88-105-193. That was a career best for Ramos, who had made four straight totals of 190kg or 191kg in the past year. Lin Cheng-Jing from Chinese Taipei won clean and jerk bronze with 107kg. She was fourth, one place ahead of Gyaneshwari Yadav from India, who had a career-best total of 182kg. Pak Myong Jin (PRK) Pak had a sweep of golds on 132-173-305, failing only with his second snatch attempt. Aniq was second on 130-166-296 and Tran Anh Tuan Nguyen from Vietnam was third on 131-160-291, ahead of Wei Haixian from China who made only two good lifts in totalling 288kg.  Tran’s Olympian team-mate Trinh Van Vinh failed with all three clean and jerks and bombed out for the fifth time in his past 10 competitions. The men's 61kg podium There was a B Group snatch bronze for Garnik Cholakyan from Armenia on 130kg, and newcomer Wei won silver in clean and jerk on 160kg. The United States Air Force was represented in the morning session, the men’s 67kg C Group, by a man who hails from a remote Pacific island, graduated in Colorado Springs and is now stationed in Japan, where he trains in his garage. Leowell Cristobal is from Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), which presents him with a big challenge in reaching his ambition of lifting at the Olympic Games. NMI is an unincorporated territory of the US. Other nations with a broadly similar status, such as Puerto Rico, Guam and Marshall Islands have National Olympic Committees but MNI does not. Cristobal realised a boyhood dream when he joined the US Air Force, but his other big goal, competing at the Olympic Games, depends on NMI gaining recognition from the International Olympic Committee after many years of trying. “I need it to happen in time for LA 2028,” said Cristobal, 26, who would have a chance of a tripartite place if it did. He moved from Saipan to the US to graduate at the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, and switched from track and field in 2018 when he found he liked lifting weights more than running. “My role is battle management, which is managing the airspace,” he said. Leowell Cristobal (NMI) While based in Japan, Cristobal is performing his USAF duties, training four to five times a week, and studying online for a Masters in kinesiology. His training programme is devised by the American coach Jackie Black, whose arranged for her friend Kyle Pierce to take on the coaching duties in Bahrain. “I only met him yesterday,” said Pierce. “He’s very focused and I’m sure he can improve.” The next competition for Cristobal, who made a career-best 105-143-248, will be the Pacific Mini Games in Palau in July. He will probably need to improve his total by at least 30kg to be Oceania’s top lifter if he opts for the new 65kg category. Two members of the USA team are also familiar with aircraft. Gabe Chhum, who finished first and second at the past two World Juniors, is an aircraft engineer and Preston Powell, also a World Juniors medallist in 2023, is training to be a commercial pilot. By Brian Oliver Photos by

Bahrain, Day 1: Photo Gallery

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Bahrain, Day 1: Historic podium place for Brazil, gold for Thailand and world records for China’s newcomer Zhao

There were victories for China and Thailand, plus world records for China as Asian athletes filled five of the six podium places on total on day one of the 2024 IWF World Championships in Bahrain. It would have been six out of six for Asia but for a remarkable performance by Thiago Felix from Brazil, whose silver at 55kg was a first ever senior Worlds medal on total for one of the sport’s most improved nations. He was in the lead until Natthawat Chomchuen from Thailand made his fifth lift. Chomchuen finished 120-153-273, up 14kg on his total when he was third at last year’s World Championships. Natthawat Chomchuen (THA) Pang Un Chol from PRK took clean and jerk gold but had bombed out in snatch, while Yang Yang from China could not build on second place in snatch, dropping to fifth on total. Fernando Agad from the Philippines was third. The triple Olympic super-heavyweight champion Lasha Talakhadze, who weighs more than all three men on the podium, was among the medal presenters. He is not competing in Bahrain but took part in the opening ceremony on Thursday. Felix excelled in gymnastics and took up CrossFit before he became a weightlifter seven years ago, despite coming from a non-sporting Sao Paulo family. He competed at 61kg for more than four years before taking a break from competition to drop down to 55kg and prepare for this event. Thiago Felix (BRA) “This medal was always the target, I thought I could do it,” said Felix, who will be 24 later this month. “I took my time to lose the weight, had good nutrition, kept calm and found it quite easy to cut down. “Now I have to go back up again because of the change in weight categories, but there’s more than six months till the Pan American Championships so I can take my time again.” Brazil’s national coach Dragos Doru Stanica also put in quite a performance, enhancing his reputation as the loudest coach in weightlifting. “I nearly lost my voice, and as you can see it’s moments like these that make me lose my hair,” he said. “I’m so proud of Thiago, competing against China, PRK, Thailand, Vietnam. He is well suited to 55 and wasn’t going anywhere at 61, so that’s why we went down. This is a great result.” Felix made a six-from-six 121-148-269 for snatch gold, clean and jerk bronze and second place on total. It was only 2kg below his best total at 61kg. Agad made 116-147-263 to finish 1kg ahead of Saudi Arabia’s Mansour Al Saleem, who was fourth. Four athletes failed to make a total, including two from Vietnam. There were good moments for Brazil in August and September, too. Laura Amaro – who also likes to make a lot of noise - finished seventh at the Paris Olympic Games after qualifying at 81kg, and Mattheus Pessanha briefly held a junior world record when he was second at the World Juniors in Spain in September. Zhao Jinhong (CHN) China entered the women’s 45kg category at a World Championships for the first - and only – time and ended with a sweep of gold medals plus two world records that will probably never be beaten. Zhao Jinhong, who was competing internationally for the first time at the age of 23, finished well clear of PRK’s reigning champion Won Hyon Sim. Won started the session with all three world records but finished with only one. The 45kg category will cease to exist from June next year, after the IWF agreed on new weights and a reduction from 10 categories to eight. The last time China had entered the lightest women’s category at a World Championships was in 2015, when Jiang Huihua won aged 17. That was at 48kg, before the categories changed in 2018. Won Hyon Sim (PRK) Zhao showed that she might have won many more times in the past few years if China had opted to challenge in the non-Olympic 45kg category. Her first lift on the world stage gave her the lead ahead of Won, and her third was a snatch world record attempt. She failed on 88kg, but Zhao made amends when her fifth lift on 110kg gave her two world records, in clean and jerk and total. Zhao bettered them on her final attempt, finishing 87-113-200. It was no great surprise because last year Zhao had totalled 198kg in a national championship, 2kg better than the world record. Won retained her snatch world record – both she and Zhao failed to beat it on 88kg – but missed her final two attempts and finished 9kg behind on 86-105-191. Pham Dinh Thi from Vietnam moved up from fifth in snatch to third on total with 73-97-170. Cicely Kyle (USA) There might have been three world records for Cicely Kyle from the United States, too – in Masters weightlifting. Kyle, who finished fifth, is the oldest athlete in the Championships at 40. She made three good lifts on 72-95-167, narrowly failing with an American clean and jerk record attempt at 98kg. “That would have been nice – but they’re Masters records for sure!” Kyle said. At national level, yes, but despite exceeding the 40-44 age group world records by some distance, they will not count because they were not made in a Masters competition. Kyle was in gymnastics and competitive fitness before starting in weightlifting about 10 years ago. “I had my first international competition in 2020, when I was 36, and then the world shut down because of Covid,” she said. Fifteen months later she won the Pan American title. Kyle is a physician’s assistant in the critical care department of a hospital. Her medical training helped her to pull off a remarkable feat six months ago, when she dislocated a finger performing a clean at a national competition, popped it back into place with the barbell across her shoulders, and completed the lift. “It’s still pretty much out of shape,” Kyle said, holding up her crooked finger. Asked which body parts hurt the most when you’re still competing at 40, she said, “The knees, definitely. “I don’t know whether I’ll keep going after this – it depends what my knees are telling me. They’re feeling good now but tomorrow they might be telling me something different.” By Brian Oliver Photos by

IWF 2024 Worlds Opening: Photo Gallery

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