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Kazakhstan’s double in the men’s 94

PRK overtook China at the top of the medals table at the IWF World Championships in Almaty yesterday afternoon and, after a sensational finish in the men’s 94kg two and a half hours later, they have a good chance of staying there. In the first medal event of the day 20-year-old Un Hui Ryo won her first world title with a clean sweep of three golds in the women’s 69kg. That took North Korea to 10 golds, one more than China, and she said, “China was the strongest nation in weightlifting before, but not now. That’s in the past!” Hao Liu then made a brave effort to put China back on top, by virtue of a better silver-bronze record, in the 94kg clean-and-jerk. It was great entertainment and the crowd, with two Kazakh athletes to cheer, loved it, making more noise than we have heard all week. Liu was out of form in the snatch. He failed with two of his three lifts and was down in 15th place, 23kg behind gold medallist Vladimir Sedov, from Kazakhstan, after making only 165kg. His first attempt the clean-and-jerk was 50kg heavier at 215kg, and he made it. Liu then failed with his second lift, on 221kg, but made his third attempt. He had moved up nine places and although he had no chance in the overall contest he was suddenly in gold-medal position in the clean-and-jerk with three lifters to finish. Rinat Kireev from Russia, failed at 224kg. So did the next man, Vadzim Straltsou from Uzbekistan. That left only the home hope Zhassulan Kydyrbayev, who went up 8kg to 229kg in one last attempt to overtake Liu and take the overall victory from his fellow countryman Vladimir Sedov, who had posted a seemingly unbeatable total of 407kg. Kydyrbayev made it, the crowd went wild, and somewhere back in their team hotel the North Koreans will have been celebrating too. They expect more gold in today’s women’s 75kg (Saturday) and believe they will finish ahead of China in the final table on Sunday. There are four more medal events to come. Ryo always looked the likely winner of the women’s contest, despite the distraction of the crowd booing her during her lift as she attempted to overtake Kazakhstan’s Zhazira Zhapparkul for victory. When asked about that afterwards Ryo politely ignored the controversy and replied, “I have won my first World Championships title and I am very happy.” China’s Youjuan Chen looked very disappointed after failing with three of her six lifts and finishing with a total of 261kg, four kilos worse than Ryo and one behind Zhapparkul. Another Kazakh, the Olympic 69kg champion Maiya Maneza, was returning at a new weight after taking time off to get married and start a family. In her first competition as a mother she made a total of 231kg, and will expect to improve next year. Those home fans did have gold medals to cheer in the men’s 94kg. Kydyrbayev and Sedov provided the first 1-2 finish at these championships for any nation. Both lifters are part of Team Astana, whose star man, Ilya Ilyin, is in action in the 105kg tonight (Saturday). Sedov won the snatch, with Kyrdyrbayev third. In second place was the colourful Aurimas Didzbalis, from Lithuania. The shaven-headed Didzbalis, wearing a lime green uniform, performed a superb backward somersault after his third lift – quite an achievement for somebody who weighs more than 93kg. He led the snatch until Sedov’s last lift and was also in contention overall until Liu and the two Kazakhs took

The triumph of Kianoush Rostami

The men’s 85kg category looks likely to be one of the highlights of next year’s IWF World Championships and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after a thrilling contest in Almaty, Kazakhstan last night. There was a first title of the 2014 IWF World Championships for Iran and three impressive performances by lifters aged 20 and 21 from China and Russia. The Bulgarian, Ivan Markov, also contributed to the excitement and would have won but for his only failure of the night with his sixth lift. The eventual winner, Kianoush Rostami, made a mess of his first lift in the clean-and-jerk. As the clock ticked down below 10 seconds he was still tightening his belt, and when he got the bar above his head he could not control it. Rostami ended up with his back to the judges and still got the verdict from one of them but two red lights signified a no-lift. Rostami failed with his second attempt too and had to make his third to go into the lead. He looked as if he had lost control of the 213kg above his head, but steadied himself and cheekily asked the judges if it was a good lift before dropping the bar. Even then Rostami, who had finished second behind Markov in the snatch, had to wait. Markov failed at 214kg, then the 20-year-old Russian Artem Okulov went for 218kg, which would have equaled the oldest senior world record in the book, set in 1998 by Yong Zhang of China. Okulov failed and so, too, did the Chinese, Tao Tian, who tried to beat Zhang’s world record when he went from 205kg up to 219kg in an attempt to win a medal. He cleaned it and looked for a split-second as though he might make the lift, but just failed. Okulov took bronze in the clean-and-jerk and overall. His total of 385kg was six short of Rostami and five behind Markov, but he looks sure to improve. So, too, does his 21-year-old fellow Russian Apti Aukhadov, who would have been on the podium had he succeeded with either of his last two attempts at 213kg. “I really enjoyed the competition, and it will make me train even harder,” Okulov said. “I really appreciate the rivalry, and I’ll see you all in Rio.” Markov, too, was keen to renew rivalry, especially with Rostami. After celebrating his victory Rostami confessed he had nearly quit weightlifting two years ago because of internal conflicts. “I nearly gave up weightlifting,” he said. Rostami’s enthusiasm returned, he said, when there was a change of coaches. He said he regained his form and confidence. Rostami travelled to Kazakhstan expecting not just to win, but to break that 1998 world record. “I’m angry I didn’t get it,” he said. “But I will do it.” The snatch bronze went to Andrei Rybakou of Belarus – the first time he won anything other gold, having won nine gold medals in previous IWF World Championships. Ulugbek Alimov of Uzbekistan took the clean-and-jerk

Women’s 69kg belongs to Deng Wei

A former circus performer won a gold medal, the home crowd cheered as a Kazakh lifter came from nowhere to take a silver, and China’s Wei Deng made a sensational recovery from a poor start in an exciting women’s 63kg at the IWF World Championships. The former circus performer was Romela Begaj, from Albania. Her father was a gymnast who passed on his skills when Begaj was very young. She performed around the world in gymnastics, trampolining and other dynamic feats of skill. And at the age of eight she took up weightlifting. Begaj, coached by her husband, the former boxer Gazmend Haksan, in Tirana, had won a snatch bronze in the 2011 IWF World Championships in Paris. Here she denied Kazakhstan a gold by lifting 113kg in the snatch, edging ahead of Karina Goricheva by having the lighter bodyweight. Winning silver was still a remarkable performance by Goricheva, 21, whose opening lift of 103kg was lower than seven of her rivals. She moved up to 108, then 113, when the crowd had to be asked to keep the noise down by the announcer. “They helped me with their support, but I had to try to calm them down for the lifts,” said Goricheva, who tried archery, fencing and karate before taking up weightlifting. “It’s tougher competing on home territory, because you don’t want to let anybody down.” Begaj, 28, became the first Albanian woman to win a world championship gold medal in any Olympic sport – only a day after Daniel Godelli had been the first man to do it when he won the men’s 77kg yesterday. Albania’s football team are doing well in the qualifying programme for Euro 2016 but, said a beaming Begaj, “Everybody is talking about weightlifting back in Albania – it’s the number one sport right now. It’s live on television and in all the newspapers.” Begaj is far better at the snatch then the clean-and-jerk, and fell away to seventh place overall. Last year’s champion Tima Turieva, from Russia, looked certain to win the overall gold when she went clear with a lift of 140kg but Deng responded with 142kg and it was enough for clean-and-jerk and overall glory. Turieva failed with her attempt at 142. She was disappointed, but said, “I can do more. I will be patient.” It was a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for Deng. She failed with her first two snatch lifts on 110kg and had looked beaten. “I was very nervous before that third lift, and very happy when I made it,” she said. “After that I just relaxed.” Deng had finished second in the Asian Games six weeks ago, behind Tzu-Chi Lin, from Taipei. Last night Lin made only two good lifts and finished with a disappointing 246kg total, 6kg behind Deng and Turieva. By Brian

Albania’s first gold medal in any Olympic sport at a world championships

Albania’s Daniel Godelli won Europe’s first gold medals of the 2014 IWF World Championships in an exciting tussle for the men’s 77kg title. He failed with a world record attempt of 211kg in the clean-and-jerk, but Godelli’s total of 369kg made him Albania’s first ever gold medallist at the World Championships. It was also the first time an Albanian won a world championship title in any sport on the Olympic programme. Albania's previous best had been the silver medal by Ilirian Suli in the men's 85kg snatch in 2002. There was also a snatch bronze for Romela Begaj in 2011, in the women’s 58kg. She competes today (Thur) in the 63kg. Despite the scale of the achievement Godelli declined to attend the post-event press conference, as his team said they were unable to provide an interpreter. PRK also stayed away despite Kwan Song Kim having won gold in the clean-and-jerk, leaving only Guoshun Zhong (snatch silver, clean-and-jerk bronze, overall silver) to answer questions. Zhong, who was a junior world champion at 69kg in 2006, was selected because his more illustrious teammate and multiple champion, Liu Xiaojun, was rested after the Asian Games. China prepared two teams, one for those Games in Incheon, South Korea in September, and for these Championships in Kazakhstan. “I have been in good form over the past year or so, but I can’t beat Liu,” said Zhong, who said he was capable, in training, of 12-13kg more than his 367kg total here. He failed with two of his clean-and-jerk attempts but so did many others. There were 17 failures and only 16 good lifts in the clean-and-jerk, which Kim won with 200kg. Zhong praised Godelli as a formidable lifter, but said he believed the attempt at 211kg for the world record was too much: he was right. Godelli, 22, a Junior World champion in 2011, was also Albania’s first gold medallist in the European Championships. He won the clean-and-jerk gold in front of his home crowd in Tirana in 2013. This year he was beaten for the European title by his fellow countryman Erkand Qerimaj, who made only two good snatch lifts and did not register a total here. Kim’s gold in the clean-and-jerk takes PRK level with China on seven golds here in Almaty, with four days to go. By Brian

Women’s 58kg crowned Deng Mengrong

China’s Mengrong Deng missed a gold medal in both the snatch and the clean-and-jerk in the women’s 58kg, but won the coveted overall title at the IWF Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It was only the second time, in the existing weight categories, that an athlete took the overall title without winning one of the other golds. The recent Asian Games champion, Jong Hwa Ri of PRK, was beaten into second place. Two Thai lifters won three medals between them: a gold, a silver and a bronze. Had they been able to combine their best efforts - a gold with 106kg in the snatch for teenager Sukanya Srisurat, and a clean-and-jerk silver on 131kg for Rattikan Gulnoi - they would have won the overall title. “We compete against each other a lot, and our totals are usually about the same,” said Gulnoi. “I think she’s Thailand’s best lifter and she thinks it’s me. I hope we can both improve.” Srisurat, 19, was surprised to take the snatch gold. Deng was successful with all her three lifts and made them look easy. But 105kg was not enough, for Srisurat made her third attempt at 106kg. Ri looked in poor form, failing twice on 103kg, and another of the favourites also struggled. Hsing-Chun Kuo, of Taipei, who won last year’s clean-and-jerk and overall golds, made only two good lifts and was 8kg or more behind the medallists. Ri improved in the clean-and-jerk, winning gold with 133kg, but she never looked likely to catch the impressive Deng, whose winning total was 235kg. Deng was asked what she was looking forward to now that she had overcome her injury to take the title. “Food,” she said. “Especially dessert.” Her favourite interests outside weightlifting, she said, were “food and shopping”. There was a fifth medallist. When Ri failed with her two attempts at 103kg in the snatch, the 19-year-old Colombian Yenny Alvarez Caicedo was left in third place on 100kg. She had great encouragement from her teammates in the crowd and gave the best smile of the night when her medal was

Who will rise in absence of big star Lu Xiaojun?

Two-times reigning champion Lu Xiaojun (CHN) will not compete in this year's men's 77kg event. He has won the men's 77kg a record three times in 2009, 2011 and 2013 at the World Championships. In addition he took the silver medal in 2010 behind Armenia's Tigran Martirosyan. At last year's World Championships he broke the world record in the Snatch (176 kilogrammes) and in the Total (380 kilogrammes), which were previously set by him at the 2012 Olympic Games. Xiaojun also holds the record for most gold (8) and most total medals (12) in this event. Daniel Godelli and Erkand Qerimaj hope to become the first Albanian athletes to win a medal at the men's 77kg. Qerimaj won the gold at the 2013 European Championships, beating compatriot Godelli based on being 20 grams lighter in personal weight, while both lifted a total of 349 kilogrammes. No Albanian lifter (both genders) has ever won a gold medal at the World Championships. Romela Begaj took bronze at the women's 58kg in 2011 and Ilirian Suli took silver at the men's 85kg in 2002. Kim Kwang Song (PRK) finished second at the 2013 World Championships and is poised to win his first gold medal in the competition. He finished on huge distance from gold medallist Lu Xiaojun: 21 kilogrammes. Before 2013, the biggest difference between gold and silver at the World Championships at the men's 77kg was eight kilogrammes (2005, 2009). The only other athlete competing in this year's event to have previously won a medal at the World Championships is Armenian Ara Khachatryan. He won gold at the men's 85kg Snatch in 2010 and two bronze at the men's 77kg Snatch and Total in 2006. Khachatryan could become the third Armenian to win a gold medal in the men's 77kg, after Tigran Martirosyan (Snatch and Total 2010) and Khachatur Kyapanaktsyan (Snatch