News

International Conference on Development of world weightlifting and fight against doping

The Belarus Weightlifting Union held an International Conference "Development of world weightlifting and fight against doping" in Minsk, Belarus on 26-27 March, 2011. The hosts: Alexandr Shpilevsky President, Alexandr Kurlovich, Vice-President and Sergey Samusev, General Secretary, created excellent conditions for the work. Sergey Nered, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Sport and Tourism, Genadiy Alekseyenko, Vice-President and George Katulin, General Secretary, Belarus Olympic Committee together with Dr. Tamas Ajan, IWF President also attended the Conference. The participants expressed their wish to develop weightlifting in their countries in close cooperation with the IWF. Well-known Belarus specialists acknowledged also by WADA made presentations about doping issues and their anti-doping activity. Their lectures were in harmony with the information given by the IWF President. On 26 March, 2011 in the framework of the conference, leaders of 14 National Weightlifting Federations of Middle Asia and East Europe established the Euro-Asian Regional Weightlifting Association. Its goal is to organise joint training camps, symposia, competitions, training courses for referees, coaches, exchange scientific documents in the interest of developing weightlifting and to fight against doping. A 3-member Coordination Group was elected to guide the cooperation of the member

Deadline to send your Final Entry Forms for the YWC

From 8 to 15 May 2011 Lima will host the 2nd Youth World Championships. The tournament held at Convention Center Hotel Maria Angola will be attended by over 300 athletes from around the world. The deadline to send your Final Entry Forms is 24 April 2011. All documents can be found on the IWF

The manufacturer for the IWF Referee Uniforms is a Thai Company

The IWF has officially announced that from the 10 October 2010 the official IWF Referee Uniforms are exclusively manufactured in Thailand under the guidance and care of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (TAWA - [email protected]). The IWF considers the Thai Company "Poppula by MV" as its official sole supplier. The TAWA Coordinator appointed to handle uniforms is Mr. Nippon Limboonsuebsai. Please contact him for any further request regarding your orders.E-mail: [email protected] - Phone: +668-567-86-888 The former Uniform manufacturer Vargas Company informed the IWF that all previous orders were delivered and with regard to our exclusive contract with "Poppula MV", the Vargas Company is no longer authorized to accept orders for IWF Referee

Arnold Sports Festival Overview

With 46 sports and events, including 13 Olympic sports, the 2011 Arnold Sports Festival was held in Columbus, Ohio in the US. The festival has expanded into the world's largest multi-sport weekend since its 1989 beginning. More than 100,000 sports fans came to see the competitions in a variety of more than 40 sports and events. The highlight of this year's edition was without any doubt the competition of "Islands vs. the Mainland" where USA's best lifters were pitted against the best lifters from the Pacific Islands. Mr. Paul Coffa, General Secretary of the Oceania Weightlifting Federation and Head of the Mainland Team reported "It was fantastic to have Arnold Schwarzenegger attending part of the event. In fact Arnold was so impressed with the young lifters that he sat down to referee a few of them. Having so many kids competing is what I call development of the sport." See the full report by the following

SPO(r)TLIGHT is out in Spanish and Russian

Our Newsletter SPO(R)TLIGHT reaches a broad audience and gives bi-weekly up to date information about our activities since its first edition on 5th October 2010. Besides the English version, we launched Spanish and Russian editions. To register for the English/Spanish or Russian version please go to the subscription link of the Newsletter on the IWF website under Media

Together we can win this fight!

The second day of the IWF World Anti-Doping Conference pursued with presentations giving a useful knowledge to the participants in order to bring us closer our main goal: eradicating doping in sport and fight even more determinedly in the future. Ms. Sophie Berwick, Venue Cluster Manager for the River Zone area LOCOG gave up to date information on Anti-Doping at the London 2012 Olympic Games especially on testing and pre-testing during the weightlifting competition. Mr. Frédéric Donzé, WADA Director, European Regional Office and International Federations Relations gave an overview of ADAMS, its functionalities and benefits of implementation while its use will become obligatory for all IWF National Federations from 1st of April 2011. Prof. Haydar Demirel, Professor in Sports Medicine talked about Gene Doping and gave an interesting point of view in athletes' selection and on the ethical questions that genetic manipulation raises. It is our responsibility to offer every attendee the opportunity to receive answers to questions regarding the discussed topics therefore participants could raise their questions and initiate discussions with the lecturers. The exceptional speakers all recognized in their respective fields enlightened in their lectures attendees' interrogations in regard of a wide range of Anti-Doping related topics. All participants received and Certificate of Participation at the end of the sessions. "Our policy is aiming at a balance between controls, prevention and education and I am sure that with this conference we brought the awareness of the Weightlifting Family to a much higher standard. Together we can win this fight!" said IWF President Dr. Aján