News

Podobedova lost her dominance in Women’s 75kg

Kazakh Podobedova could have been the only lifter in the world to win all three World Championships held after Beijing Olympics. Her dream did not come true. However she was successful in Snatch with 131 kg, just 1 kg advantage against her great rival Evstyukhina (RUS). By saving their final attempts Kulesha (BLR) ranked 3rd and Valentin (ESP) ranked 4th performing three-three correct lifts. The dual between Podobedova and Evstyukhina was a nice example of building strategy based on strength and confidence. Podobedova tried to improve her own World Record but this time 135 kg was too heavy. This moment was the start of losing her crown. A new protagonist Kim (PRK) performed very well missing only one attempt in Clean and Jerk. That helped her to occupy the 3rd position (265 kg). Podobedova ran into further trouble when she failed at her opening Clean and Jerk and had to reconsider her situation (156kg). On the other hand Evstyukhina was extraordinary motivated and determined. Top guns of this class attacked the Clean and Jerk World Record (162 kg). Finally Podobedova had to jump 7 kg without any success. The 2011 European Champion Evstyukhina proved why she led the world ranking list of the year. Full of confidence and the enthusiastic audience helped her clean and jerking 163 kg breaking her own World Record and taking gold medals. Women 75kg Press Conference Women's 75kg category finished with Nadezda Evstyukhina (RUS) winning two gold and one silver medals, and also setting new World Record in Clean and Jerk.Attending the Press Conference, Kazakhstan's silver medallist Svetlana Podobedova said she got seriously injured two months ago during a very heavy training; accordingly she could not perform very well. And now she has to relax for weeks to feel better. When being asked about the fact that she cried backstage, Svetlana stressed that this year was not a very successful year for her, and despite her serious injuries, she trained with her full energy. She added it was a shame for her when she could not win the gold medal. Declaring she had to perform better and win gold medals but due to her injures she could not show her full power. The winner walked directly to the doping control

The winners are Lu, Su, Sa (and Perepetchenov)

China entered with two athletes, 25 years old Su Dajin and 27 years old Lu Xiaojun. Their strongest rivals were title holder Martirosyan (ARM) and Olympic Champion Sa Jaehyouk (KOR). It really needs an outstanding Hollywood scenarist's imagination to set a stronger field in 77kg.Lu and Su proved themselves to be very strong when they were able to perform correction within an attempt. Heaviest of all Martirosyan was very close to Snatch 168kg but finally failed. World Record holder of Snatch, Lu was in an excellent shape edging out his rivals by 4kg. At his last attempt the question was open whether he would catch first place or just the third? 170kg was not insolvable for him. Sa's handicap at that time was not more than 13kg comparing to the lead and 9kg distance from bronze medal position. And he was heavier than both Chinese lifters. Armenian Martirosyan looked unsure during the whole competition and he remained on 190kg, his opening Clean and Jerk. Lu, Su and Sa had a memorable fight. The three outstanding athletes attacked Perepetchenov's 210kg World Record (Perepetchenov's World Record stood up to all 211 kg attempts and this way he became a winner as well). A World Record attempt was needed at the 77kg competition to capture the final victory but all three missed it. Lu's Clean was brilliant, but he couldn't complete the Jerk. By the way the Chinese and Martirosyan performed squat jerk. With a Total of 360kg Sa won the bronze medal. With a Clean and Jerk of 206 kg Su got a gold, and with a Total of 372kg he became the silver medallist. Lu won gold in Total with 375kg. Men's 77kg Press Conference: The audience at Disneyland weightlifting hall witnessed a most challenging competition so far, as three weightlifters of 77kg category decided to break the records of Clean and Jerk. Speaking at the press conference, Chinese gold medalist Lu Xiaojun hoped that the same four medallists will compete also at the coming London Olympics. Believing: "the fight among professional athletes would be very stimulating".Being asked for his opinion, why none of the 77kg athletes could make three correct lifts, Lu stressed it was quite normal in weightlifting and it was because of the high standards of the competitions. China's silver medalist Su Dajin also declared he was excited about the fierce competition among the 77kg weightlifters and hoped to compete against the same medallists in a very near future. Korea's bronze medallist Sa Jaehyouk talked about the five operations he had during his career, including two serious operations on his shoulder, and that he could not prepare himself completely for the World Championships.He highlighted that winning medals at 2012 Olympics would depend very much on the trainings of the athletes, and then wished good luck for all the competitors at 77kg weight class. Meanwhile, Su Dajin expressed his sorrow over Sa's injuries, wishing he would recover soon and compete with each other in the coming competitions.Armenia's Tigran Gevorg Martirosyan, bronze medallist in Snatch, also said he felt so sad after hearing about Sa's serious operations, adding Sa was an excellent weightlifter and would definitely repeat his great performances. Armenian Martirosyan said after Antalya World Championships he had two serious injuries and for six months he had to undergo medical treatments.

Iran is seeking for new world record in superheavyweight

Iran's weightlifting team has participated in Paris 2011 World Championships with its young and powerful athletes. Behdad Salimi, world's champion in super heavy weight and gold medalist at Asian Games 2010, is Iran's greatest hope.All members of Iran's national team arrived in Disneyland on Tuesday, and they had their training sessions in the evenings. But the weights elevated over head by Salimi yesterday evening, proves that he is now completely ready to display his superiority in Paris 2011 championships.While training in Disneyland, he snatched 200kg and clean and jerked 250kg for several times. It is predicted that he would begin his snatch with 200kg in World Championships. His first move would pave the way for Salimi to set new world record, as he has snatched 214-217 kg in his previous trainings. Attending his first interview in Disneyland, Salimi said: "Right now I'm in a very good condition, I caught cold a week ago, but now I feel better. I would capture gold medals of this championship." He stressed that setting new record in the world championships was not easy and would depend on different aspects, but promised he would do his best to do so.He said he was very happy for staying in Disneyland and visiting Paris. He plans to visit Eiffel Tower before his

David Luckes: Weightlifting is a fantastic sport

David James Luckes (43) helped in UK2012 Olympic bid and is now in charge of Sport Competition for London Organizing Committee. Yesterday he visited the competition Arena. "It is a very interesting place to run a World Championship. The Dome is really very atmospheric, it has its own flavor. In terms of my short stay just to come to see what to learn, how we can develop our plans. I had a team of six people spent a week here working with the Organizing Committee understanding lot of the actual details. We have learnt all the lessons we could learn from this competition." - He said. Q: Just 260 days before the Games start what more to learn? A: We can always learn how to do things better. The key thing for us is working in a team. Our team operates with the athletes, operates with officials, we learnt how to work with IWF. Of course there are certain elements fixed like how the competition arena is set up, our plans are 99 percent fixed, but always the small details are important, you have to deal with that little one percent we are still looking for. We must learn how to provide the athletes with really great experience instead of good experience. We are looking for the elements of sports presentation. The theatrical elements of weightlifting are very interesting; the spectator involvement must be focused as well. One thing is put on the event and one thing to put on sport. The spectators are the part of the game.We see what happened in Beijing, we see what happened at previous World Championships, and we are looking to build upon this experiences and we just wish to improve the level, to move it on expressing our predecessors all had a great job, of course. But sport evolves and we have to evolve with that sport as well. Q: Nine month to a child to be born. This is the last nine months for you to be ready to present the world your ideas realized. Nine months are enough to finish your work as you are dreaming about? A: I hope we are not late. We have a test event coming up in about six weeks time. It is a nice opportunity to see exactly where we are. With other sports we have so far 19 test events and lot of positive feedback of International Federations we received. Hopefully the weightlifting Test Event is in pretty good shape but it is high time to see the areas we can develop a little bit. Q: What is your relation to weightlifting sport? A: My sport was field hockey. I have been in three Olympics in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney as a goalkeeper. So I did a lot of daily weight training as part of that. I think that is the key thing about weightlifting that everyone in sport has done it as part of the training. But also a great advantage of this sport is easy to understand to spectators. The explanation of the rules of some sports is very complicated, but not with weightlifting. Its simplicity makes it magnetic. I think it is really a fantastic

Podobedova’s dream on triple gold in Total

Due to Polish Dolega's operation and Kazakh Maneza's defeat in Paris out of three Podobedova remained the only athlete who can win all three world championships titles presented after Beijing Olympic Games. In Goyang city (2009) she defeated Chinese Olympic Champion Cao Lei and in Antalya (2010) she won the gold in front of Russian Zabolotnaya. After her last victory she has disappeared, she did not take part at Asian Championships held in Tongling, China and has no result on the 2011 World Ranking list. But this time she returns to grab her third World Championship gold medal in Total. She must face the famous and hungry Russian tandem of Evstyukhina, European Champion and world ranking list leader in 2011 and Shimkova, Antalya's World Champion in 69 kg. Last year's 69 kg silver medalist Kang Yue followed her and moved up to 75 kg. Following Cao Lei and Li Xia she is the next Chinese challenger of Podobedova. Is her penknife sharp enough? Dark horse is Spanish Lidia Valentin the bronze medal winner in Kazan European Championships this

Martirosyan is ready to win again

World Championship title holder (77kg) Tigran Gevorg Martirosyan has nothing else in his mind than to win another gold medal in Paris. He lost his father and the tragic loss gave him more strength. Tigran realized how hard fight is in front of him but as he said a real sportsman must overcome all difficulties and he thinks that he will be able to repeat his success in Antalya. Phlegmatic by his nature Tigran is very emotional, very quiet and patient at the same time, but he often listens to music and reads books. He is a modern guy, who adores technical progress, new technologies around him. On his way to Paris the Armenian lifter finished his training in Podolsk near Moscow,