News

European Weightlifting Championsips is available to watch online!

Romania hosts the Senior European Weightlifting Championships at the “Sydney 2000” Olympic Center in Izvorani, near Bucharest, attended by over 200 athletes from 32 countries. The competition started yesterday, on 26th of March and finishes on 1st of April. European Weightlifting Championship in Izvorani is broadcasted live on Eurosport and Romanian National Television (TVR). This is the third time Romania hosts a European Weightlifting Championship, after 1972 (Constanța) and 2009 (Bucharest). You can watch the live streaming and results here, or check out the Time Table! Source: 

WFA Executive Board meeting and Congress

On 24th March 2018 the Weightlifting Federation of Africa held its Executive Board meeting. It was opened by its president, Mr. Khaled Mehalhel. Mr. Mahmoud Mahgoub, IWF EB member, President of the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation gave information about the upcoming African Youth and Junior Championships - YOG Qualification Event in Cairo. The Executive Board discussed the following topics: 2017 WFA annual report of activities 2018 WFA Development Program Activities of WFA Marketing and Sponsor Commission Future events (3rd African Youth Games, 2019/2020 African Youth, Junior and Senior Championships) Financial statement and estimated budget The IWF was represented by Ms. Timea Horvath, Development and Education Manager who gave presentations about the YOG and Tokyo 2020 Qualification systems at the WFA Congress which was held on the same day. The Championships will start today, on 26th March 2018, with the participation of 114 athletes from 15 countries. Check out the Start

China National U17, U18 held in a Shopping Mall

The China National U17, U18 Weightlifting Championships was organized in Zhejiang Province, China from March 10 to 11, 2018. This was the very first U Championships ever held in China and the first National Championship this year. The Championships featured its innovation by competing in a big shopping mall with more than 100 athletes participating, which was the first time for Chinese Weightlifting Association to organize professional weightlifting Championships in a shopping mall. As a warming up activity, a Fun Competition was held on the afternoon of March 9. About 30 athletes competed in standing long jump, deadlifts and back squat, etc., which attracted many customers to watch with frequent

European Weightlifting Championships 2018: Ones to watch

With 124 men and 113 women representing a total of 31 countries across 48 events, the European Weightlifting Championships will bring together the continent’s top lifters for a week of unmissable action in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. Among those competing at the Championships – which will start this Monday, March 26, and conclude on the following Sunday, April 1 – will be Lasha Talakhadze and Lydia Valentín Perez, the winners of the IWF Men’s and Women’s 2017 Lifter of the Year awards. Talakhadze and Valentín were both gold medal-winners at the IWF World Championships in Anaheim at the end of last year and will be hunting gold again in Bucharest. Georgian Talakhadze, lifting in the men’s +105kg division, is gunning for a third consecutive triumph at the European Weightlifting Championships, having topped the podium in Førde (Norway) in 2016 and Split (Croatia) in 2017. [caption id="attachment_20903" align="alignright" width="265"] Georgia's Lasha Talakhadze[/caption] [caption id="attachment_20850" align="alignleft" width="250"] Spain's Lydia Valentin[/caption] COMPETITIVE DIVISIONS Talakhadze will be up against compatriot Irakli Turmanidze, as well as the likes of Hungarian Péter Nagy and Czech Republic lifter Jiří Orság. Elsewhere in the men’s competition, Artūrs Plēsnieks and Krzysztof Zwarycz will hope to go one better after claiming silver medals at the World Championships, but both will have to contend with fiercely competitive divisions. In the 105kg category, Latvian Plēsnieks’ rivals will include Austrian Sargis Martirosjan, while in the 85kg division, Croatian Amar Musić’s record total score of 355kg matches that of Zwarycz. Romanian athletes, who will be roared on by the home support, are set to be in medal contention in several of the men’s divisions. Home hopes will be pinned on athletes such as Nicolae Onica in the 94kg division, Ionut Ilie in the 62kg category and Paul Dumitrascu in the 69kg division, although the latter will face tough competition from the likes of Bernardin Matam, who took a bronze medal home to France following last year’s World Championships. [caption id="attachment_20778" align="alignright" width="248"] Hometown girl - Loredana Toma[/caption] [caption id="attachment_20787" align="alignnone" width="254"] France's Bernadin Matam[/caption] HOME HOPEFULS Romanian fans will also be targeting medals in the women’s competition, with Mădălina Molie and Loredana Toma, who picked up a gold medal in Anaheim, considered by many to be the two front-runners in the 63kg division. Also representing the host nation will be Andreea Aanei, who has the top personal best total score in the +90kg category, as well as Florina Sorina Hulpan and Elena Andrieș, who are seen as two of the top lifters in the 69kg and 48kg divisions, respectively. Irina Lepșa is in the running in the 58kg category, although Latvian Rebeka Koha is likely to start as the favourite due to her bronze in Anaheim and the fact that her personal best total score is 11kg heavier than her nearest challenger. Anastasiia Hotfrid, another member of a strong Georgian contingent in Bucharest, will also start as the favourite in the 90kg, having won gold at the World Championships in Anaheim last December. Meanwhile, in the 75kg division, French lifter Gaëlle Nayo-Ketchanke, who finished in third place in Anaheim, will be hoping to knock Lydia Valentín off the top spot. However, it would be a brave person to bet against Valentín, for whom this event carries extra significance. The charismatic Spaniard picked up her first major senior medal – a bronze – at the 2007 edition in Strasbourg, France, and has gone on to dominate the division at the European Weightlifting Championships, with three golds in 2014, 2015 and 2017. -- Follow IWF: Facebook Instagram Twitter

The European Weightlifting Championships: A Brief History

The European Weightlifting Championships is one of the oldest annual events on the international sporting calendar... The first edition was held in the Dutch city of Rotterdam in 1896 – the same year of the first modern Olympic Games. This landmark year for the sport laid the foundations for the rise in the global popularity of weightlifting in the years and generations to come. After visiting the Austrian capital of Vienna in its second year, the Championships returned to the Netherlands, and stayed there, for the next seven years, with the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam all staging the event. The Championships landed in Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Germany and Hungary in the following years before settling again in Austria for three consecutive editions, up until the start of the First World War. [caption id="attachment_21557" align="aligncenter" width="501"] Halil Mutlu (56kg)[/caption] UNMOVABLE CELEBRATION Since the event’s return to the calendar in 1921, it has never been staged in the same country two years in a row. It was not until after the conclusion of the Second World War that the event became a permanent annual celebration of Europe’s top weightlifters. Since 1947, the Championships has visited 32 different territories and produced some incredible performances in the process. In the European Weightlifting Federation records list, several benchmarks have been set at European Weightlifting Championships over the years. In the men’s 105kg+ division, German Ronny Weller lifted a European record of 260kg in the clean and jerk in front of his home fans in Riesa in 1998. Two years’ later, Polish lifter Szymon Kolecki produced a clean and jerk lift of 232kg in the 94kg category in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, while in 2001, Turkish athlete Halil Mutlu, in the 56kg division, set another European benchmark of 168kg in the clean and jerk at the Championships in Trencin, Slovakia. Those records still stand to this day for European athletes, as does the feat of Croatian Nikolai Pechalov, who produced a total lift of 325kg in the 62kg category at the 2000 Championships in Sofia. [caption id="attachment_21559" align="alignleft" width="274"] Ronny Weller (+105kg)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_21560" align="alignright" width="234"] Nikolai Pechalov (62kg)[/caption] RECORD-BREAKERS While this year’s event in Bucharest, Romania, from March 26 to April 1, will be the 97th edition of the annual European competition for male athletes. For women, this will be the 31st edition of the annual event. The inaugural Women’s European Weightlifting Championships took place in San Marino in 1988, but 10 years later, the women’s and men’s events came together to take place in the same city for the first time – Riesa in Germany. The dual Championships for men and women in the same city has continued to this day. In the Polish city of Wladyslawowo in 2006, Russian Svetlana Shimkova set a new European best of 141kg in the 63kg women’s clean and jerk division, once again proving that these Championships are where records are made. This year’s event will once again feature the continent’s best, with top lifters from across Europe ready to compete for a place on the podium across a total of 48 events. Stay tuned for the results! -- Follow IWF: Facebook Instagram Twitter

The EWF Scientific Magazine’s latest issue is out

Check out the January - April issue of the EWF Scientific Magazine