News

Moldova: a turbulent year and the promises of youth

Memorable Moment by Natalia Donets In 2011 the admirers of Moldovan weightlifting could see extraordinary achievements, visible progress and unexplainable traumas; although it would be hard to pick one moment to stand out above all others, it’s certain 2011 was remarkably unlike the other pre-Olympic qualification runs that Moldovan weightlifters have experienced to date. Hopes for the year were high after the European Championship in Kazan. Oleg Sirghi returned home with two gold medals in clean and jerk (56 kg), Anatolie Ciricu became the overall silver medalist (94 kg), while Ghenadie Dudoglo scooped a bronze in snatch (56 kg)… 2011 also gave another proof that Moldovan weightlifting has a promising new generation of athletes to support and encourage. The names of the likes of Cristina Iovu, Artiom Pipa, Iurie Dudoglo, Gheorghe Cernei and others are likely to be heard of for a long while yet. The European Junior and U-23 championship gave a full proof to that, when Moldovan weightlifters returned home from Bucharest with a record-breaking 15 medals: 8 gold, 6 silvers and one bronze. For the first time ever the Moldovan team occupied the second spot in the Championship rankings. The run-up to the junior’s was emotional. This year, just once have the young Moldovan weightlifters stopped a mere step away from the podium. Cristina Iovu, forerunner of Moldovan female weightlifting and a hopeful to reach the London Olympics, was the fourth at the U-20 World Championships. Iovu, Artem Pipa and Gheorghe Cernei became the fourth at the Shenzhen University Games… In dire training conditions, when the halls are out of order and there are not enough modern weights for every athlete, the progress of each athlete is an amazing effort in itself. The London Olympics are just around the corner, yet thus far Moldova does not have any secured weightlifting quotas. The performance of the Moldovan team at the Paris World Championship became a discouraging continuation for the winning series and a disappointment for the national Federation and the sporting community of Moldova. Four weightlifters were injured, no female quotas earned and the best result of the team was 8th place earned by Anatolie Ciricu. Four quotas earned at the 2010 World Championship were not confirmed, thus making this year’s Championship in Antalya decisive for the fate of Moldovan Olympic hopefuls. Hopefully, 2012 will be the year of correcting mistakes and shortcomings. Natalia Donets AIPS young

European Weightlifting Federation Elections

The IWF aims to continue its work in strong and close cooperation with its Continental Federations. European countries highly contributes to the success of weightlifting sport at international level; therefore the European Weightlifting Federation elections will undoubtedly be in the center of attention in the upcoming period. The EWF elections will be held in April in Antalya, Turkey and we wish to inform our stakeholders about the list of candidates downloadable from the following link: [download id="31516"]. The IWF would like to wish a lot of success to all candidates, and truly hope that with the elections, the shared interests and efforts of both the IWF and EWF will lead to strengthen the efficiency of cooperation and unity within the Weightlifting

International Women’s Day

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, it is important for the IWF to underline with pride the constantly growing role of Women weightlifting in international sport. Weightlifting for women celebrated the Premiere at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad held in Sydney with 85 athletes from 47 countries, and the number of participants grown ever since. In 1987, the same competition structure for both men and women has created an equal opportunity and gives endless potential to further increase the continuously growing interest for our sport. Women to participate in more and more competitions inspire young generation to seize opportunities given to them through equality. The IWF has always been devoted to adjust its rules and open weightlifting competitions to Women in different countries and cultures all around the world. We highly consider as future the great potential that Women can bring to weightlifting and the world of sport. Dr. Tamas

Deadline for the Preliminary Entry Forms to the Junior World Championships

The deadline for the Preliminary Entry Forms to the Junior World Championships and Pan American Olympic Qualification Event expired today. We invite all National Federations to send their Final Entry Forms to the Guatemalan Weightlifting Federation ([email protected]) and to the IWF Secretariat ([email protected]) before April

The fabulous story of a promising Peruvian lifter

Memorable Moment by Julio David Palacios Tello Ercila Beatriz Limas Rosales is a promising young Peruvian weightlifter. At her 16 years she has been ranked among the top eleven youth lifters of the world in the 58 kg category at the last Youth World Championships held in May 2011 in our country, Peru. Her story is an example of tenacity and commitment for our athletes, who want to bring out the best of them. Beatrice has shown them that making efforts and overcoming obstacles are constant improvements day by day. Beatriz was born on December 5, in 1996 in a village “shipihua”, a wild tribe located downstream in Padre Abad in the Ucayali region Aguaytia, which can be reached only by the river in small boats as the dinghy. Village life unfolds in a very traditional way where the houses are raised with straw and leaves “pona”, which is a type of wood used to cover the floor of their homes, while women are preparing food cooking on wood or fire. Beatriz became involved in weightlifting for pure curiosity. When she lived in Santa Rosa community, she was watching the training of the Aguaytía League and, once when there was nobody around she started to imitate the movements she had seen during the others were training. Recognizing her interest in this discipline, Coach Pedro Pascual Zuta Paredes urged her to begin the proper weightlifting training, to which she agreed quickly and started learning the techniques of the snatch and clean and jerk. Her skills were improving, her technique was getting better during the trainings; it did not take much effort to her to adapt to the daily life of the same. The time arrived soon to show her quality as an athlete and make her debut in a tournament held in Chachapoyas where she managed to be within the best three of her division being the youngest among the juniors. Therefore she could participate in the National Championship for Minors organized in the city of Arequipa in December 2010 where Beatrice became the national champion setting a new national record in her age group (under 13 years) in the 40 kg category. Until today, Limas became national champion three times and also was considered the best athlete of 2010 among the athletes under 15 years old of the city of Arequipa. Since 2011, Beatriz has been training in Cuba in order to improve her training methods thanks to a scholarship granted by the ADO (Association of Olympic Athletes in Peru) where at the same time she is s pursuing her studies and the target is not other but the next Olympic cycle on the way to the Rio Olympic Games 2016. All these achievements at such a young age made Beatriz very admired and respected in her village, managing to overcome obstacles as an athlete at national and international levels and trying to improve herself always with the aim to become better and better. On the other hand, we shall emphasize that prior to getting involved with weightlifting, Beatriz never went to school, did not speak Spanish, only the dialect of her tribe (Shipibo language). She did not know neither how to write until start practicing our discipline. Then she started to learn the Castilian (standard Spanish) language little by little and writing with remarkable facility and cleverness. In 2011 she participated in the VIII and IX Pan American and South American Championship for athletes under 15 years in Isla Margarita – Venezuela, occupying a creditable 4th place among the Pan American and occupying third place in the South American lifters achieving three bronze medals for Peru and making three new national records in her category. Limas is also involved in a program of the PAD (Athletes’ Support Program) promoted by the Peruvian Sports Institute (IPD), in addition she gained a scholarship in Havana, Cuba, Peru thanks to the ADO Board, an association whose purpose is to support the high performance athletes of Peru with the help of the Peruvian Olympic Committee, the Peruvian State through the Ministry of Education and the private sector, a task performed for the first time in Peru. Julio David Palacios Tello Technical Coordinator

London 2012 Weightlifting team

Matthew Curtain, London 2012 Weightlifting Manager reports that the final staff member of his paid workforce has been recruited. Camélia Bouaziz joins LOCOG as the Weightlifting Administration Group Leader, having been employed previously at the 2011 World Championships Organising Committee and the French Weightlifting Federation prior to that. In addition to his existing personnel comprising of Margaret Lynes (Services Manager) and Keith Morgan (Technical Operations Manager), all Group Leaders will commence at LOCOG in April 2012. This follows the weeklong secondment of staff during the ‘London Prepares’ Weightlifting International Invitational (Test Event) in December 2011. ‘With a combination of Games knowledge, event experience, technical expertise, language skills and business acumen, I’m delighted to welcome everyone onboard for what will be a rewarding experience. Additionally, I’m pleased that every team member recruited already has an existing connection to Weightlifting and as such, a tangible opportunity now exists whereby a robust legacy piece for the sport in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland can be created’ said Mr. Curtain. The Weightlifting Group Leaders are as follows: Moira Lassen (Technical Officials Group Leader), Marta Vlad (Athlete Services Group Leader), Sam Hayer (Field of Play Group Leader), Can Osman (Training Site Group Leader), Diana Holden (Training Site Group Leader), Laura-Denise Ramsay-Overall (Sport Equipment Group Leader), Emily Godley (IF Services Group Leader), Elodie Sauvaigo (Sports Information Group Leader) and Camélia Bouaziz (Admin Group Leader). Staff profiles can be located here: [download