News

Judith Chacon (VEN) 1986-2009

We are deeply saddened to inform the Weightlifting Family that Venezuelan lifter Judith Chacon passed away. She gave birth to a baby but was subsequently taken by H1N1 disease which she could not survive.With Judith Chacon weightlifting lost a very important South-American athlete. She was a member of the Venezuela team in the Beijing Olympic Games (9th place in 53 kg), she took part in two junior world championships and in the 2006 world championships.We express our condolences to the family and to the Venezuelan Federation.  (Ruth Hossein)

Results 2009 Commonwealth Championships

The full results of the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships for Senior and Junior held in Penang Malaysia on the 19th - 23rd October, plus the team points and best lifters awards. 2009_Commonwealth_Championships_results.pdf Paul Coffa (CWF General Secretary)

Bolivarian Games weightlifting competitions will start on 30th Oct.

President of the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee (COE) Danilo Carrera said that Ecuador will compete at the 17th Bolivarian Sports Games with 438 athletes in 33 sports. The Bolivarian Games will be hosted from Nov. 14 to 24 in Sucre, Bolivia, however the weightlifting competitions will start on Oct.30 and some competitions will be hosted also in Bolivian cities of Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and

London 2012 Stamp Program

London 2012 Stamps London 2012 has entered into an agreement with Royal Mail, the national postal service of the United Kingdom, to create and publish a collection of commemorative stamps celebrating the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. Over the course of the next 3 years Royal Mail will publish a total of thirty stamps embracing each of the combined sports as well as any sports that are Olympic or Paralympic specific. The stamps have been designed by renowned creative artists from across the UK and each take on a very different approach; from the most abstract of styles to the most refined and ornate. Published in presentation packs of ten stamps each year in the run up to 2012, they will form a valuable collector's item and become one of the first licensed products to be associated with the London Games. The first set of London 2012-themed stamps went already on sale. Designed by top artists and illustrators, they feature 10 Olympic and Paralympic sports, including weightlifting. The stamps were launched by Jessica Ennis, World Heptathlon Champion 2009; Nick Gillingham, double Olympic medallist; and Gregory Parker, 11-year old Swimming hopeful ranked first in his county and trained by Gillingham. There will be further issues of sports stamps in 2010 and 2011, alongside first day covers, presentation packs and other commemorative products. The stamps are available to buy on the Royal Mail website Royal Mail is commissioning some of the most exciting artists and illustrators to produce a total of 30 stamps. The first of these features Olympic and Paralympic Games issued in two se-tenant strips of five 1st Class stamps. Further sets of ten will be issued in 2010 and 2011. (by London 2012) Artist - Guy BilloutGuy Billout is a French artist and illustrator whose aesthetic style is spare and deceptively simple but instantly recognizable, at times incorporating some ironic element.His work has been featured in Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times and Glamour.

The IOC launches the Youth Olympic Games Medal Design Competition

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is offering the public a chance to make Olympic history by designing an Olympic medal for the Youth Olympic Games. People around the world are being invited to submit their designs for the medals to be awarded at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) which will be held in Singapore next year, from 14 to 26 August 2010. Sergey Bubka, Chairman of the Coordination Commission for Singapore 2010 said "The concept for the first ever Youth Olympic Games has always been not only to reach out to the 3,600 athletes who will participate in Singapore next summer, but also engage young people in the Olympic values wherever they may be. By launching the first ever medal design competition online we hope to tap into the creativity and imagination of young people across the world." Visit the dedicated medal design website at: www.medaldesigncompetition.com. The public will also be invited to vote on the 10 best medal designs. These 10 best medals will be submitted to an IOC jury who will then elect the best design. The winning designer will win a trip to the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games next summer and be able see first hand their design be awarded to the athletes. They will also win a Gold medal replica of their design. Procedure:- Design submissions from 7th November to 4th December 2009- Public voting from 7th December 2009 to 22nd January 2010- The winner will be announced by the 31st January 2010 (IOC Press office)

Sun Haibo crowned strongest man in Chinese National Games

Asian champion Sun Haibo beat defending champion Dong Feng to claim the title of the strongest man in China in the men's over 105kg category at the 11th Chinese National Games on Monday. Sun, representing Jilin province, made an amazing lift in his second attempt, jerking 245kg, totaling 445kg to secure the gold. Sun, Asian champion in 2007, still had to improve his performance in the future, because his result was 16 kilos short of the result of the Beijing Olympic champion Matthias Steiner of Germany, the strongest man in the world. The runner-up Dong, 31, hoisted a total of 438kg while Sun's teammate Yu Mingqiu got the bronze at 427kg. "If China wants to become the real power in world weightlifting, we must develop the heavier categorys," said Ma Wenguang, president of the Chinese Weightlifting Association. "We organized a team to make a research in the past years, and tried a lot to improve the performance of the lifters in the heavier categorys, but it was not effective," he added. (Xinhua)