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Zhou Lulu crowned in +75 kg

The audience enjoyed the dual between Russian and Chinese competitors. It was unexpected Opeloge (SAM) had no correct lift at all in snatch. Armenian Hripsime Khurshudyan had a serious elbow injury on 130 kg and she had to withdraw. In snatch both athletes had their best performance as Zhou Lulu equalled the world record (146 kg), while Kashirina's (RUS) junior and senior world record was broken by Kashirina (147 kg). From far distance Olha Korobka (UKR) followed them with 127 kg on the third place. In clean and jerk the crucial moment came by the first attempt of title holder Kashirina. She made a mistake (175 kg), Zhou played upon the chance (175 kg). Kashirina had to jump to 181 kg but it was clear 13th is not her lucky number. It was a bad day for the 20 years old Russian lifter and she even had to sustain how Zhou rived the world record total from her (328 kg). Korobka collected two more bronze medals (157 kg clean and jerk, 284 kg total). Women's +75kg press conference: Women's +75kg category ended with Chinese weightlifter Lulu Zhou setting new world record in total and winning two gold and a silver medals. Speaking at press conference, China's champion who was competing in her first world championships said she started weightlifting in 2003 and that she accidentally got involved in this sport. When she was in primary school, she was selected by weightlifting coaches to train and later compete as she had enough physical abilities to lift heavy things. Russia's silver medalist Tatiana Kashirina, who also won a gold medal in snatch and set new world record at the move, expressed her disappointment over her result. She said she really did not know what happened and why she made poor performances in clean and jerk. "I don't know what really happened, I concentrated very much on my attempts in clean and jerk, but I did not perform well and I could not show my full power," Tatiana said while still crying for her loss. Ukraine's bronze medalist Olha Korobka also attended the press conference expressed her satisfaction over the results. The three medalists said that they were the only weightlifters in their family and that they were the only heavy members of their

Jiri Orsagh: missed World Championships

Jiri Orsagh (CZE) had a remarkable result at the European Championships this year. His total of 410kg ranked him number three following the winner Lapikov (419kg) and runner up Shymechko (412kg). According to Mr. Krol, President of the National Federation the athlete had a wrist injury and he might be operated soon. Time is short as Orsagh had among his plans to take part at the test event in London in

105 kg: Russian Top Guns Faultless

In the presence of former two times Olympic Champion (1996, 2000) and four times World Champion judoka M. David Douillet, Sports Minister of France men's 105kg category has once again seen a fierce competition after the two Russian teammates fought with each other to win the gold medal. But finally Khadzhimurat Akkaev could win three gold medals of this category. The Dome was full again and many had to fall back on sitting in the lobby area and watching the competition on giant beamer only.All through the competitions, the Russian competitors, Akkaev and Dmitry Klokov bewildered the audience with their great performances, as they both made three-three correct lifts, and proved themselves to be the strongest athletes in the 105kg bodyweight category. The end of the competition in both Snatch and Clean and Jerk were completely unpredictable as the last three lifters, the two Russian and Ukraine's Oleksiy Torokhtiy, kept increasing their weights. Akkaev, who was 2011 European Champion, demonstrated himself as the strongest man in 105kg category, with an overall of 430kg, 198 in Snatch and 232 in Clean and Jerk. His last attempt in Snatch was only 2kg lower than the world record of 200kg formerly set by Belarus's Andrei Aramnau in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics. After his teammate Klokov finished Clean and Jerk with 232kg, Akkaev disappointed his fans as he also lifted ‘only' 232kg. Klokov, 2010 European Champion, once again came in second as he also won silver in 2010 World Champion and 2008 Beijing Olympics. He ended Paris 2011 World Championships with an overall of 428kg, 196 in Snatch and 232 in Clean and Jerk. World Champion's third icon was Ukraine's Oleksiy Torokhtiy who was experiencing his first World Championships, but his great jerks raised the audience to their feet. He ended the competition with a Total of 410kg, 181 in the Snatch and 229 in the Clean and Jerk. Georgia's Gia Machavariani also made 6 correct lifts and won bronze medal in the Snatch with 187kg. The weightlifting fans will definitely witness much more demanding competition in London as these four competitors promised to perform even on a higher level in the coming Olympic Games. Men's 105kg Press Conference: Speaking at press conference, Russian silver medallist Dmitry Klokov told the reporters that he had not been on the same club with Akkaev, as they live in different cities and train in different gyms. Right before the competitions the coach gathers them and they train together while they are staying in the National Team's camps. Dmitry also added it was the first championships that they were competing with each other, and that they know each other for ten years. He stressed that during training sessions he made better performances, including 200 in Snatch and 240 in Clean and Jerk. Being asked whether the two were friends and would celebrate their victories with each other, Russian world champion Akkaev said they are only "partners" and not friends, and that each is going to celebrate with the group that accompanied them for the IWF 2011 World Weightlifting Championships Paris. When asked if they had fan clubs, the gold medalist said he did not have official fan club but has been the subject of discussions in internet. Silver medalist said his family was his fan club. Ukraine's bronze medallist Oleksiy Torokhtiy also considered his family, friends and coaches as his fan club. Torokhtiy said 2011 Paris two bronze medals were his first medals at a World Championships and that he was very happy to compete

Ele Opeloge has medal dreams

Samoa has never had a medal at World Championships. Beijing Olympics fourth placed Ole Opeloge thinks it is really high time to open a new chapter and she expects medal today in women +75kg competition. Her personal best is 130kg Snatch, 165kg Clean and Jerk. She hopes to improve these results and aim at 300kg in Paris. She feels herself strong enough to achieve her goal. As she said her preparation was undisturbed during the trainings she had in Samoa. Her family helped her a lot to focus on her great task. The family works hard at a banana plantation and they live on this work. Finally Ele added she likes eating and her favorites are salmon, chicken and a local vegetable of Samoa, taro she misses very much here in Paris. As Ele Opeloge's plans mentioned she aims at Olympic participation and Commonwealth Games with her medals.

Ilyin : What a come back

94kg group A had a remarkable line up with the Olympic Champion Ilyin, all three medallists of Antalya World Championships, 2011 European and 2011 Asian Champion, additionally the current Junior World Champion. There was one significant lifter of the category missing, Sedov (KAZ) World Champion of 2009 who moved up to 105kg division. Kazakh team leaders replaced him by Uteshov who had a memorable debut by all Snatch attempts missed. Calancea (ROU) was the oldest of all (31 years old) while youngest Mohammadpour (IRI) stepped over 18 this year.After three years of absence Ilyin was very happy to come back however he docked just on the fifth place after Snatch. Ivanov (UKR) and Ivanov (RUS) looked to decide the fate of the first positions. The Russian lifter could not make a mistake ending Snatch at 186kg. Artem Ivanov and his coaches were clever enough not to get into trouble by risking 187kg. 186kg and the second rank made them satisfied. Korean Kim showed super power and could have riffled it all. He was challenged by 187kg. First place or third place? Hope of gold made him hungry; he was just 1kg away from Kakhiasvili's World Record. The record holder was sitting in the audience and he had to realize the time is close when one of these athletes will be sharp enough to wipe his name from the list of current records. In Clean and Jerk Nurudinov (UZB) failed with 225kg but had a good position with his 221kg also as he was the lightest among favorites. Not counting of course Ilyin who moved from 221 to 226kg at his second attempt. Non stop pressure characterized this competition. Regarding just the last attempts of the top 12 lifters Mohammadpour's 221kg was the only successful one. Artem Ivanov had one chance to take the lead as he needed 227kg. It could have meant 413kg Total, a new World Record, but Kakhiasvili's peak achievement still resisted. However he dropped his last attempt Ilyin became a World Champion due to his lighter body weight (407kg). He needed only four successful attempts to achieve his goal and return from his treacle sleep. There was nobody, known or unknown, in the warm up area he did not kiss expressing his emotions. Out of the 15 Beijing Olympic Champions he is the only one who had been crowned after three years time again.There are two more interesting statistics: six nations were represented at medal ceremonies and among the top 13 lifters 10 came from the territory of so called ex Soviet Union. Men's 94kg Press Conference: Over 40 weightlifters fought to capture the gold medals at men's 94kg weight class, however Kazakhstan's Olympic and World Champion title holder, Ilya Ilyin, could finally win two gold medals at this category. Attending the press conference, Kazakh gold medallist was asked why he did not take part in World Championships in 2009 and 2010. He explained that after 2008 Beijing Olympics he had injuries therefore he decided to take 2009 off and spent his time doing leisure activities such as reading books. And in 2010 he competed at Asian Games but again due to his serious injuries he could not participate in the Antalya World Championships. Ilyin stressed that he would make better performances in the coming Olympic Games, promising to break the World Record and accordingly collect the gold medals.Regarding the referees' decision not to accept his third attempt in the Snatch, Ilyin said that was what the referees decided and he had to accept the decision.He later added that his result at the Paris 2011 Xorl Weightlifting Championships was the top of his capacity for the time being. Ukraine's silver medallist Artem Ivanov, expressed his gratitude to his family and friends. Saying he could not manage the competition as he wanted because when he was doing the Snatch his back hurt. Iran's bronze medallist Saeed Mohammadpour Karkaragh, also present at the Press Conference, declared that he has been in Iran's national camp for 10 months and considered the continuous trainings and the camps' discipline as the key to his success. Adding he also had enough motivation to participate in the World Championships and win medals at the age of 18 as a junior weightlifter.

Hein Verbruggen: The IWF should face the problem of headcount

Hein Verbruggen was re-elected for another four-year term as President of SportAccord this April in London. He was among the VIP guests of the IWF who visited the competition and presented medals to the winners. Q: What was the reason of your "just a day long" trip to Paris? A: You know I travel a lot, recently I was at the rugby World Cup in New Zealand, than I visited korfball World Championships in China and now I am here. What I really want to do is obviously observing how it goes with weightlifting a year before the Games. I appreciate enormously that I am able to attend the World Championships where I found enthusiastic public, high level competition and really amazing atmosphere. I must add these championships are pretty well presented on television as well. Q: How can SportAccord support the so called smaller sports compared to soccer, track and field, swimming, etc.? A: Swimming, cycling, running these are basic things that everyday people do very often. What about the specialized sports? They are bounded to certain groups of countries, like weightlifting is very popular in many Asian and Eastern European countries. The IWF has the challenge to make the sport more and more popular outside these basic areas as well. I like to help this work very much. We study what we can do to promote this sport. We offer to the Federations YouTube to promote their sport, they can deliver us the footage and we put it on the internet. It is important there is diversification in sports and in this respect we will continue to help all Federations. If there is a sport recognized by us there is no difference between them. So there we go. Q: Let us talk focusing on weightlifting. This sport is led by Dr. Tamás Aján, IWF President since 2000. He introduced lot of novelties and his wish for further development is obvious. What future do you predict to weightlifting? A: Asking question about Tamás Aján it automatically leads you to answer: you have to give this man an enormous credit for what he does for weightlifting for a long time. He is a good friend, very straightforward, decent person who was elected president of the IWF 11 years ago.You know, sport has also to be modernized. A huge number of lifters are here giving a big challenge for the organizers. It is difficult to find cities or regions which can handle so many athletes. The IWF has perhaps found the solution for that - to be a little bit more restrictive. It is difficult to get to this point. It is a hard job to find cities especially in the Western Hemisphere with all the financial resources to organize an event of such magnitude. I think the IWF must face the problem of headcount