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105kg ? New Junior World Champion from Russia

The prolonged Russia vs. Kazakhstan duel eventually concluded in a success for the former in the 105kg category for men. The snatch was won by Belorussian Sergey ISTOMIN, but only on bodyweight over Russian Igor MERKUSHOV. In clean and jerk the Russian gained a massive 8-kg lead and pushed ISTOMIN back into bronze-medal position. MERKUSHOV captured the ultimate victory with a 379kg total, the runner-up being ISTOMIN and Roman RUSSYANOVSKY of Kazakhstan took the

Women?s Junior Worlds wound up

Still one year away from running out of the junior age group (19 years old), Katsiaryna SHKURATAVA of Belarus collected three silver medals last year. This time, in the last women?s competition in Hangzhou, the +75kg, she performed a total eleven kilos more than in 2005: the 258kg gave her two gold medals. Her strong clean and jerk made up for a weaker 5th position in snatch and so SHKURATAVA scored the final victory among the heaviest women. Singularly, the Chinese entry DING Yi finished in 4th place in total and failed to win any medals.The team ranking of the 2006 Junior Women?s World Championships lists Russia in first place with 540 points. The second best nation is Thailand and the host country, China is only in third

Ilin continues to dominate

Kazakhstan?s 18-year old prodigy ? Ilya ILIN -  picked up the thread where he dropped it in 2005. Before last year he was unknown to the weightlifting world, but he came, a 17-year old young man, and captured the junior then the senior world championships titles. No wonder he was elected Best Lifter of 2005.This year he moved up into 94kg and did not stop before scoring an overwhelming victory here, too. ILIN performed six lifts straight and passed the 400-kg margin (401kg) with his last clean and jerk of 225kg.In second place we find Andrei ARAMNAU of Belarus (393kg) and in third place Vartan KUKASYAN of Russia

New senior and junior world record in Hangzhou

The first senior world record was born in the women?s 75kg at the Junior World Championships. Russian Svetlana PODOBEDOVA had already boasted both senior and junior world records in snatch and in total. This time in Hangzhou, she changed her compatriot?s Natalia ZABOLOTNAIA?s total record from 285kg to 286kg. By now, PODOBEDOVA has a collection of 4 gold and 5 silver medals in junior world championships. Already in snatch PODOBEDOVA acquired a 23-kilo lead. She added 158kg in clean and jerk to make the new total world record. She thus outscored surprise silver-medal winner Sinta DARMARIANI of Indonesia by 47kg. Another major surprise was a lowly 4th position achieved by the Chinese entry, LI Li.The men?s 85kg gave further proof that the Russian and the Belarus teams were best prepared to the Junior Worlds, while the host Chinese squad performed unprecentendly weakly. All three gold medals went to Vadzim STRALTSOU (BLR) with 375kg, before Russian Vasiliy PŐOLOVNIKOV (365kg) and Belarus Mikalai NOVIKAU

Victory by the largest margin

In what was so far the most exciting competition of the Junior World Championships, the Chinese competitor came out victorious. In the men?s 77kg, SU Dajin ? unknown to the international stage ? preceded last year?s junior bronze medallist, Polish Mikalai CHARNIAK by the smallest one kilo margin. The bronze went to Alexei YUFKIN of Russia.The Chinese skipped the women?s 69kg category, so the two Russian girls fought their own battle. Both stood out by far from the field. The new junior world champion, Nadezdha EVSTYUKHINA (265kg) outmastered her team-mate by 9 kilos, but Oxana SLIVENKO herself (257kg) registered an unbelievably large margin over the bronze medal winner, Tetyana ZHUKOVA of Ukraine. Thereby the difference between the winner and the third place winner was

Surprises and new medal winners in China

In the women?s 58kg class, GU Wei, the defender of the world title and holder of all the world records, surprised enormously capturing only third place in total ? despite the familiar environment in Hangzhou, China. She fell 36kg behind her own record. Two women outclassed her: Svetlana TSARUKAEVA (RUS) and PEREZ Mercedes (COL), lifting 231kg and 208kg, respectively, in contrast of GU?s mere 285kg.In the next category, 63kg, the Russians continued to excel. Marina SHAINOVA, former world champion, pocketed all the three gold medals.  The men?s 62kg awarded a new world champion: HU Ting of the host nation. The victory did not fall into his lap: HU Ting won the snatch, but the clean and jerk gold went to Sergei PETROSIAN (RUS). The Chinese finally won in total, as PETROSIAN was unable to catch up with his 6kg advantage.In the showdown of the 69kg for men two countries captured their first medals in Junior World Championships: Erkand QERIMAJ of Albania won gold in the jerk, while Ricardo FLORES of Ecuador took silver. In the end, however, Chinese ZHONG Guoshun of China got the total