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Yerevan, Day 4: Latvia’s Suharevs and Britain’s Smith fit and firing at European Championships

Two weightlifters whose careers were stalled by physical and mental setbacks had a day to remember at the European Championships in Yerevan, Armenia. Ritvars Suharevs from Latvia, who has had surgery on both shoulders since finishing sixth at the Tokyo Olympic Games and now has to have a third operation, won a tense men’s 73kg when he just managed to deny Spain’s David Sanchez a victory from the B group. There was only 1kg between the top three finishers Suharevs, Sanchez and the Olympic bronze medallist Mirko Zanni from Italy, whose only failure was his final attempt at 182kg. Earlier Zoe Smith put in her best performance for two and a half years to win Britain’s first medals of the Championships within weeks of “everything going terribly” when she was suffering anxiety and mental health problems. Smith, who has also had serious shoulder trouble during her long career, took gold in clean and jerk and bronze on total in the women’s 64kg, in which Nuray Gungor won Turkey’s second title of the week. Suharevs was full of praise for his coach Eduard Andruskevics, back with Latvia after a year in charge of Saudi Arabia’s team, and physio Arnis Noveicuks for helping him back to full fitness after surgeries that followed the Tokyo Games in 2021 and the European Championships in Albania last May. “They are the best team, they have given so much time to me,” said Suharevs. “We prepared for this not just one month but for four months – I owe them so much. “In all that time I didn’t speak to anyone, I only focused on preparing for this.” Suharevs had training camps in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Estonia and Armenia, and his hard work paid off. He will have to have a third operation, though, because of a rotational problem in his right shoulder, he said. Suharevs made five of his attempts to finish 152-184-336. Sanchez made six from six for 150-185-335, and Zanni – who came out first in clean and jerk after winning the snatch – made 155-180-335. Albania’s Briken Calja had a third straight bombout, all in world or continental championships, and never looked like making any of his snatches at 151kg and 152kg. Bozhidar Andreev of Bulgaria was third in snatch, Yusuf Genc of Turkey won the clean and jerk gold on 186kg and Max Lang of Germany was third. In the women’s event Gungor finished on 99-120-219 ahead of the Ukrainian Mariia Hanhur, who made only two good lifts for 98-116-214. Britain’s double Olympian Smith failed with her final attempt at 122kg, which would have put her above Hanhur, but still surprised herself by making 93-121-214. “To be honest, when I first started preparing for this I didn’t expect anything,” Smith said. “I’ve really been struggling with some strange anxiety, yips, a mental health issue, particularly in the snatch and I barely snatched more than 80kg in training for long while (her best is 100kg). “In the first three months of the year it was going terribly and my goal at that point was just to put some lifts on the board. “But training has got better in the past month, probably because I relaxed a bit more and didn’t pressurise myself so much, and I started to think I could maybe put in a good performance. “It wasn’t my best lifting ever but I’m getting there, I will be back.” Smith suffered a devastating shoulder injury that kept her out of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and had to work part-time to survive when Britain lost funding for weightlifting after Rio. Funding became available again before Tokyo, where Smith finished eighth – two places better than London 2012 – and the support has remained. “That’s all down to Emily Campbell’s fantastic performance (in winning silver) – she secured us that support,” said Smith. Smith’s next Olympic qualifier is likely to be at 59kg, at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Saudi Arabia in September. As time goes by Smith, who will be 29 next week, is thinking about her future in the sport. She has jointly opened the East London Weightlifting Club in Bethnal Green, London with Britain’s former head of coaching Giles Greenwood and her team-mate Fraer Morrow – who is recovering from injury and hoping to start on the Paris qualifying path at 49kg at the IWF Grand Prix in Cuba in June. “That’s three classes a week… the older I get, the more I’m looking at coaching as another avenue,” Smith said. “I’ve given my life to this sport and it might be a love-hate relationship but the love wins and it would be silly to ever leave it.” Smith’s “support system” watched her performance on livestream from London – “mum and dad, my boyfriend Matt and my black Labrador Luna”. She was off to celebrate with a nice meal with her long-time friend Anni Vuohijoki from Finland, who retired after finishing ninth on 202kg, ending a career that began in 2012. By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photos by yantsimages.com and Brian

Yerevan, Day 3: Konotop heads Paris weightlifting rankings after sensational European triumph

Kamila Konotop outperformed the Colombian world champion Yenny Alvarez and moved to the top of the women’s 59kg rankings for Paris 2024 with a record-breaking victory at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan, Armenia. The host nation had its first win in the evening session when 19-year-old Gor Sahakyan was cheered on by a large crowd to finish clear in the men’s 67kg. Ukrainian Konotop made all six lifts, four of them record-breakers, to finish 26kg clear of Nina Sterckx, the world and European 55kg junior champion from Belgium. Konotop’s previous best total was 223kg when she finished sixth behind Alvarez at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Bogotá last December, the first qualifying event for Paris. Here she made 106-129-235 for a 12kg improvement that was 1kg more than Alvarez’s winning total in Bogotá. “I prepared very well and I know the numbers make me top of the rankings – I’m very happy but I’m not surprised,” said Konotop, 22. “I started preparing for this as soon as I got back from the World Championships.” She is hoping her next competition will be the IWF Grand Prix in Cuba in June but there are complications because Ukraine will withdraw if “neutral” athletes from Russia take part there, which remains a possibility. The contest was over by halfway in Yerevan. In the snatch there were 18 red lights for attempts between 90kg and 98kg, and every one of the other 10 lifters had at least one failure. Unfortunately for Lucrezia Magistris three of the red lights were hers, and so for the second time in two Olympic qualifiers the Italian failed to make a total. As soon as Magistris had walked off the platform after failing at 98kg, Konotop came out and easily made her first attempt at 100kg. She followed up with a European record snatch of 104kg, then bettered it on 106kg to build a lead of 13kg. Sterckx did well enough in the clean and jerk to force Konotop out before everybody else had finished, but missed her final attempt at 120kg and ended on 93-116-209. The 20-year-old Belgian lifted at 49kg in Colombia and now features in the rankings at both weights. Konotop claimed all three senior continental records. Her 29-year-old team-mate Nadiia Shpilka made only two good lifts but took third place on 93-114-207. Sahakyan was also a wide-margin winner who made a big improvement on his previous best total. He failed with a world junior record snatch attempt at 147kg but his 145-175-320 was 18kg up on his previous best total and far too good for the rest of the field. Acoran Hernandez took second place on 140-165-305. The 32-year-old Spaniard was sandwiched by two teenagers, Sahakyan and Kaan Kahriman from Turkey, who made 141-160-301. Two others made the podium in clean and jerk: Ferdi Hardal of Turkey was second and Bulgaria’s Valentin Genchev third, both on 166kg. By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photos by yantsimages.com 

Yerevan, Day 2: “I saw angels” says Romania’s second champion at European Championships

A few minutes before Andreea Cotruta won Romania’s second title of the weekend at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan, Armenia she was flat on her back after passing out. When she went for her second clean and jerk in the women’s 55kg, 19-year-old Cotruta cleaned it but collapsed before she could try and complete the lift. What happened? “I just don’t know,” she said. “I saw angels, I saw people flying around the hall and I fell.” The duty doctor rushed on to the stage but Cotruta was soon up on her feet and heading to the warm-up room. She had only a minute to recover for her final attempt at 110kg but was thinking, “I am not going to fail, I will make this lift,” she said. Cotruta drank plenty of water, had a few slaps from her coach to bring her back to the real world, went out and made the lift with no angels in sight. Her 91-110-201 equalled her career best but could still be beaten if the Ukrainian Svitlana Samuliak made her final attempt at 112kg. Sauliak failed, and Romania had its second winner in two days after the success at 49kg on Saturday of Cotruta’s favourite lifter, Mihaela Cambei. Samuliak made 90-109-199 and Izabella Yaylyan earned plenty of cheers from her home fans when she won Armenia’s first medals of the weekend, a sweep of bronzes on 87-109-196. Cotruta’s success meant that Romania was on the podium in all the first four events of the Championships, three for women and one for men. There was a sensational finish in the men’s 61kg when the two contenders for the title both made big jumps on their final attempt – and both made them. Sergio Massidda from Italy missed two of his snatches and his first clean and jerk, and with one attempt left he had to make up 8kg to take the lead from Shota Mishvelidze from Georgia. Massidda, 21, made it and looked the likely winner given that Mishvelidze had made 155kg in clean and jerk in his past five competitions at this weight, and was sitting on 155kg with one lift to come. Mishvelidze, 28, had to go up 7kg to 162kg and he also made it, fairly comfortably. Asked whether he had believed he would do it he said, “Yes, I was confident because this time I was not suffering any injury.” He has had surgery on his shoulder, elbow and knee and now he is clear of problems and fully fit. Mishvelidze made five good lifts for 136-162-298, a career best at 61kg. Massidda made 130-162-292 and third place went to Ivan Dimov of Bulgaria on 127-150-277, with his team-mate Gabriel Marinov taking clean and jerk bronze on 154kg after failing with all three snatches. After the men’s 55kg Angel Rusev stood down from the podium clasping his medals and shouting, “Three times European champion!” The ultra-consistent 21-year-old Bulgarian has made totals between 250kg and 258kg seven times in his 10 competitions as a senior, three of which won him continental titles. Rusev, Europe’s top finisher at this weight in sixth place at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Bogotá, Colombia in December declined his final attempt after making 109-141-250 to complete the hat-trick. The man he beat into second place looked just as happy as Rusev, which was not surprising given that it was the first time on the podium for Ramini Shamishvili from Georgia, after 12 years as an international weightlifter. “Yes, it was a long wait – there are no words to describe how I feel,” said Shamishvili, 28, who had finished between fourth and eighth place in seven European Championships before today. All those efforts came at a heavier weight, either 61kg or 62kg, and the hard work to try at 55kg paid off. “I didn’t eat, more sauna, more training – it was very hard but I always trusted in myself that I could win a medal and now I will keep working to win more medals in the future,” he said. Would he be celebrating with a big meal? “Oh yes,” he laughed. Shamishvili made 113-136-249 for snatch gold, clean and jerk bronze and silver on total, ahead of the Romanian Valentin Iancu on 109-136-245. Muammer Sahin from Turkey took silver in the snatch, in which Rusev was fourth best but clearly happy with 109kg, celebrating as if he knew he would go on to win overall. By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photos by

Yerevan, Day 1: First ever medal for Ireland and records for Romania at European Weightlifting Championships

Thammy Nguyen, who gave up competing for nearly seven years to start a business and a family, was in floods of tears after winning Ireland’s first ever European Championships medal in senior weightlifting. Ireland’s coaches Harry Leech and Beata Jung were also overcome after Nguyen’s remarkable effort in the women’s 49kg on the opening day of the 2023 continental championships in Yerevan, Armenia, an Olympic qualifier. “The main thing I keep thinking about is fate,” Nguyen said after the medal ceremony, before detailing a series of events that led to her moving into the top 20 in the rankings for Paris 2024. Her parents moved the family to Ireland when Thammy was seven, and after trying CrossFit as a teenager she swiftly moved into weightlifting with one thing in mind: competing at the Olympic Games. After a promising start she lifted at the IWF World Championships – the first Irish female to do so – in 2015, but in the summer of 2016 she stopped competing. In the next few years she got married, started a couple of businesses with her husband Mark Gough, had two children – Lilly, now four and Marc, two – and was “a bit of an entrepreneur”. She and Mark now run a CrossFit gym in north Dublin. While all this was happening Nguyen’s brother Nhat became an elite badminton player and made the Ireland team for the Tokyo Olympic Games. “When he went off to the Olympics, that was when I knew I had to come back into weightlifting,” Nguyen said. “I asked his coach, a Malaysian, ‘I don’t suppose you know any weightlifting coaches do you?’ and he said he’d come back to me.” He was true to his word, and recommended his friend Faizal Baharom who lifted for Malaysia at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. “I hired him to come over to Ireland and coach me. “He arrived in January 2022, when I got really serious about training, and I wouldn’t let him go home. “I owe thanks to everyone in my family, to my husband, to other coaches but the fact is without Faizal I wouldn’t be here today. “Now I just want to go to the Olympic Games with my brother.” By making her final attempt at 98kg after an earlier “good lift” decision at the same weight had been overturned by the jury, Nguyen became the first Irish female to lift twice her own bodyweight and its first senior medallist, taking bronze in clean and jerk. The only other medal Ireland has ever won was a silver in the European Juniors in 2013, claimed by the social media fitness phenomenon Clarence Kennedy, who never lifted in competition again after that event. Nguyen was overcome in the warm-up room after her final lift and tearfully asked several times for confirmation that she was guaranteed a medal. Her 75-98-173 was a career best, placing her fifth on total. The impressive winner was Mihaela Cambei from Romania, who had a sweep of golds and two continental records in snatch and total, making a six-from-six 92-106-198. Giulia Imperio from Italy was second on 83-100-183 and Anhelina Lomachynska of Ukraine third on 81-95-176. This was a first senior title for Cambei, 21, who has been youth and junior European champion and who was the top European finisher in the IWF World Championships in Colombia in December, when she was fourth with a 194kg total. Romania had the highest European finisher at those World Championships in all the three lightest weight categories for women – Adriana Pana at 45kg, Cambei at 49kg and Andreea Cotruta at 55kg – as well as a world record victory for Loredana Toma at 71kg. In the first medal event of the day at 45kg Pana finished second to Turkey’s Cansu Bektas, who had a sweep of European junior records on 72-90-162. Bektas, a 19-year-old who has won world and European youth and junior titles, improved on last year’s second place to claim her first senior title. Pana made 70-83-153 for silver ahead of another 19-year-old, Marta Garcia from Spain, who had a career-best 68-85-153. Cotruta lifts at 55kg on Sunday evening and has the joint highest entry total of 205kg. It was also a memorable day for Portugal, back in the weightlifting fold after more than two decades of exile. Nair Rosas Pinto, a forensic doctor from northern Portugal, did not start weightlifting until  she was 30. Now 37, Rosas Pinto made the first lift of the Championships and the first by a Portuguese lifter in international competition since 2001. The old Portuguese Federation, which last sent a team to the European Championships in 1999, had “legal issues and no support” said Paulo Antunes, national coach and secretary of the newly formed federation that gained full membership of the EWF this year. “At one point we had only four clubs, we nearly died and it was Masters weightlifting that kept us alive,” Antunes said. Portuguese federation president Vitor Estevao said, “Now we have nearly 70 clubs, including in the Azores and Madeira, and almost 700 athletes. “We all work as volunteers and becoming full members has given us a big jump up.” Rosas Pinto went on to make six from six in the women’s 45kg B Group, making 44-58-102. “Maybe I’m too cautious with my numbers – I’ve had six from six a few times,” said Rosas Pinto, who did not practise any sport until a work colleague suggested she try CrossFit. “I was lucky that there was a weightlifting coach at the gym and I’ve been training ever since.” By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photos by Brian Oliver 

Pizzolato can help Italy bounce back at European Championships

Italy had a desperate time at weightlifting’s first qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games but they can do far better in their second attempt. Antonino Pizzolato, one of five current world record holders from Europe and one of three Italian medallists at the Tokyo Olympic Games, returns from injury to lift at the eagerly awaited European Championships in Armenia starting on Saturday. At nearly 1,000m above sea level, host city Yerevan is Europe’s second highest capital. Altitude sickness will not be a problem at the Karen Demirchyan Complex, though, as it was when three Italians bombed out along with many others in the first Olympic qualifier in Colombia four months ago. At the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships, held 2,600m above sea level in Bogotá, Pizzolato was an absentee and the Tokyo medallist Mirko Zanni, Youth Olympic Games champion Cristiano Ficco and European silver medallist Lucrezia Magistris all failed to make a total. None of their four team-mates made the podium and the entire team of seven made only 12 good lifts between them. But Italy were far from alone in suffering in a competition that featured more no-lifts than good lifts. Having won more medals than any other European nation in Tokyo, improving Italy can follow up with their best European Championships performance in decades. After his three snatch failures in Colombia, Zanni said it was “a source of pride for me” to recover well from a disappointing performance. “You can only improve what is to come, not what has already been done,” he said. “Despair makes no sense and you always have to move forward and improve.” Zanni is a very strong contender at 73kg and by the time he lifts on Tuesday Italy may already have been on top of the podium. Over the weekend Sergio Massidda, fourth in Colombia despite making only two good lifts, looks strongest at 61kg and in the women’s 49kg Giulia Imperio attempts to add to the junior and senior titles she won last year. Lucrezia Magistris and Giulia Miserendino have chances at 59kg and 71kg respectively, while Oscar Reyes at 81kg and Ficco at 96kg are also capable of winning medals. Pizzolato versus Karlos Nasar at 89kg could be one of the highlights of the week but as both men need a total to figure in the Olympic rankings it might not match last year’s epic contest in Albania, when the Italian set a world record on total of 392kg. Nasar, from Bulgaria, holds the clean and jerk world record at 81kg and 89kg but he also bombed out in Colombia and needs to snatch well. This is Bulgaria’s first competition since a change of leadership at its federation. New president Arif Majed and his board have voted to appoint a temporary coaching team led by the long-time but apparently outgoing head coach Ivan Ivanov. Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and hosts Armenia – all of whom won World Championships medals - have entered formidable teams, and Romania has a very strong line-up in the women’s events. Armenia will have high hopes in all the heavier men’s events and there will be plenty for home fans to cheer later next week. The other three European world record holders besides Pizzolato and Nasar are Lasha Talakhadze from Georgia, Simon Martirosyan from Armenia and Loredana Toma from Romania, the only non-Asian with a current women’s world record after she set a new 71kg snatch mark of 119kg in Colombia. Talakhadze against Varazdat Lalyan, the outstanding 23-year-old Armenian, and his team-mate Martirosyan in the super-heavyweights should be a fitting finale to the Championships on April 23. Britain’s Emily Campbell, an Olympic silver medallist, is clear favourite in the women’s super-heavyweights. One of the most competitive sessions could be the men’s 102kg, a class in which Europe did well in the World Championships by having five finishers in the top 10. Nobody has made 400kg in qualifying yet but two young Armenians, Samvel Gasparyan and Garik Karapetyan, made early entry totals of 400kg before Gasparyan moved up to 109kg in search of more gold for the hosts. In what should still be a high-quality session Karapetyan lines up against the reigning champion David Fischerov from Bulgaria, Marcos Ruiz from Spain, Arturs Plesnieks from Latvia, Vasil Marinov from Bulgaria, Tudor Bratu from Moldova and Giorgi Chkheidze from Georgia, among others. All of this comes with a caveat, which will be the case throughout the entire qualifying period: it all depends on individual athletes actually competing rather than merely meeting their anti-doping requirements, weighing in and waving to the crowd without attempting a lift. The single best total in a minimum of five “participations” will count in qualifying for Paris, so anybody not feeling 100 per cent need not risk lifting, as was the case in Bogotá when Olympic champion Shi Zhiyong and Tian Tao from China sat it out. Chinese Taipei was among nine other nations whose athletes did not lift after weighing in at the World Championships, and in the Pan American Championships in Argentina last month the Canadian Olympian Boady Santavy weighed in without lifting. By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games

IWF in mourning – Rolf Maier (FRA)

The IWF learnt with great sadness about the recent loss of Rolf Maier, distinguished member of the French weightlifting community, at the age of 86. Mr Maier took part in three editions of the Olympic Games – Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968 – and was bronze medallist in the 75kg category at the 1965 European Championships. Having developed most of his career in the region of Picardy, he left a strong legacy in the sport in France: one of the weightlifting national training centres for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is named after him. Moreover, under his technical guidance, Daniel Senet was crowned world champion in snatch in 1981, a competition held in Lille (FRA). In this moment of grief, the IWF addresses its heartfelt condolences to his family and friends, as well as to the entire French weightlifting