News

Coming up: African Youth and Junior Championships in Tunis

The active and ambitious Tunisian Weightlifting Federation will host the African Continental Championships for the Youth and Junior lifters in Tunis. The competitions will take place in the Omni-Sport Hall between 20th and 24th November. The hosts expect maximum participation from all over the African Continent. Prior to the Championships, on 19th November, the WFA will have its Executive Board meeting, followed by the WFA Congress and the Verification of Final Entries, at the accommodation place which is the El Mouradi Hotel in

Men wind up the University World Championships in Eilat

In the 105kg, Gennady MURATOV, Russia, had no special difficulties in becoming the 2012 University world champion. In fact, representing a class on his own, he came out when the others had finished, among which the member of the strong Moldova team, Andrian ZBIRNEA reached the highest results. MURATOV recorded very impressive 175kg and 220kg results and this 395kg total put him into 10th position in the annual ranking of the IWF. The Russian supremacy was seriously challenged in the men’s +105kg category, when Hojamuhammet TOYCHYYEV from Turkmenistan lifted 6kg more in the snatch (186kg) than the best Russian, MEZHGIKHOV (junior world champion in 2009) and one kg more than Armenian Hayk HAKOBYAN. The fight among these top three continued in the clean and jerk, whereby MEZHGIKHOV was the most self confident opening with 215kg. HAKOBYAN registered 217kg as best result in jerk and 402kg in total. TOYCHYYEV, the Junior-aged Turkmen remained in 3rd place overall, because the Russian was supreme with 222kg on his second attempt, enough to win in total with 402kg and declined his last lift. This was the last competition in exciting four days at the 3rd FISU World University Championships, where the organisers excelled in providing outstanding conditions to the participants and the student-weightlifters rewarded the hosts and the FISU/IWF Weightlifting Community with top-class performances.  

The biggest weight ever lifted by a woman is now 188kg!

The ladies finished their World Championships with the +75kg category on the final day in Eilat. It was going to be a showdown between the 2012 Junior world champion, YAO Chi-Ling of Chinese Taipei and 2010 Asian Games winner and World Championships silver medallist MENG Suping of China. It soon turned out, however, that the Chinese was at a different “academic degree”, when she started to snatch at 130kg. Moreover, YAO missed all her attempts in the snatch and in the clean and jerk reached the same 130kg as the opening snatch lift for MENG... This difference became even more spectacular in the clean and jerk when MENG started at 173kg and with her second attempt of 180kg she came at merely 7kg of the world record set by JANG Mi-Ran three years ago. And in the third attempt the magnificent MENG Suping lifted a sensational new world record of 188kg! What a beautiful crown on this high-level event held in Israel 6-9 November

Favourites rebut challengers

When the men’s 85kg came around, there was no doubt that former Youth Olympic and junior champion Artem OKULOV (18 years old) from Russia had the biggest chance to win. In a large field of 16 lifters, he won the snatch by a large margin (162kg) and so did not have to fear the challenge coming from Armenian Aghasi AGHASYAN. Both jerked 195kg, this weight giving OKULOV another two gold medals, then, in a third attempt he chose to take on 203kg for a personal best. That weight escaped him this time – but not for long. Weightlifting at its best – that was the essence of the men’s 94kg competition, when the “bidding” went on for minutes backstage, kilo by kilo, without any of the lifters actually appearing on the platform to take an attempt. As in the books, each lift towards the end of the competition changed the order. Eventually, five lifters shared the medals. Lukasz Roman GRELA of Poland took the snatch gold medal on bodyweight ahead of Romanian Marius DANCIU and Russia’s Egor KLIMANOV. In the clean and jerk the Russian met a new challenger, Vardan DAVTYAN from Armenia. At the end of the tactical fight, both lifted 212kg and – having equally snatched 165kg and totalling 377kg – the overall gold medal was captured by KLIMANOV due to his slightly lighter

High class lifting continues on the University stage

With Korean WON Jeongsik and Artiom PIPA from Moldova as the protagonists, an exciting fight could be witnessed in the men’s 69kg category, where each lift changed the ranking order and the last one in clean and jerk finally proclaimed the Korean as the champion on bodyweight. Both lifters totalled 318kg and pushed Armenian AVETISYAN into third place with 315kg. The 77kg category was dominated by this year’s Junior world champion Dmitry KHOMYAKOV of Russia, who gained a comfortable lead in snatch to win overall with 338kg over Samvel GRIGORYAN of Armenia. Dumitru CAPTARI and Andrei BIRCA, both representing Moldova, shared the bronze medal winning and the fourth positions. The women also continued their competitions with the 63kg, which was won by Russian Natalya KHLESTKINA over Chinese XU Li. In the next category, the 69kg, Ya-Jhen WANG from Chinese Taipei was supreme with her 222kg against China’s CAI Xinghua who totalled 218kg. The 75kg show was awaited with great expectations as this category featured Olga ZUBOVA (RUS), former Youth Olympic, two-times Junior World and current European champion. Although the Russian lifter was challenged in the snatch by Brazil’s best, Jaqueline FERREIRA (both did 106kg), in the clean and jerk ZUBOVA flashed a little bit of her class and won hands down with a very light 135kg, registering a total of

Junior World Record at the University Worlds in Israel

Moldova and Japan among the men, China alone among the women have been supreme so far at the 3rd University World Championships in Eilat. Coming with a star-studded team including former Youth Olympic, world and junior world champions, the Chinese student squad contributes to the edge and high quality of the event. In the men’s field, Igor BOUR of Moldova became the first winner, followed, in the 62kg category, by Japanese Yoichi ITOKAZU. After two beautiful victories by Chinese HE Yunhua (in 48kg) and CHEN Xiaoting (in 53kg), former world, junior world and Youth Olympic champion DENG Wei presented us with a formidable performance on the second day into the Championships. Still just 19 years of age, DENG improved her own junior world record total to 244kg in the 58kg