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Teenage weightlifter Zoe Smith is Britain’s strongest girl

Zoe Smith has lifted three times her own body weight to rise to the top of her sport. The schoolgirl set 98 British records last year and has her sights set on competing at the London Olympics in 2012. And she has now been voted "Athlete of the Year" in her sport by the British Olympic Association. The title is usually reserved for Olympic medallists, but she was handed the award after taking gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India. It ranks her alongside Sir Chris Hoy, the newly knighted triple Olympic cycling champion, and Andy Murray, Britain's top tennis player, who have both received the award in their sports. Zoe, from Abbey Wood, in south east London, said: "To say I was shocked is a bit of an understatement. "Seeing my name on a list as an equal alongside all the big names from this year's Olympics was unbelievable. "At first I thought there might have been some mistake and was a bit nervous about telling anyone so I was amazingly happy when it sunk in that it was true." Zoe, a former gymnast, first started weightlifting at the age of 12 after she was asked to make up the numbers in a weightlifting team for London Youth Games. Too young to participate because the coaches did not realise she was only 12, Zoe was taken under the wing of her trainer Andy Callard at the Europa Gymnastics Centre, where she continued her development, training for eight hours a week. And since turning 13, she has systematically smashed nearly every national record there is. Going onto to break 98 British records in 2008, Zoe became the youngest ever holder of senior British weightlifting records. She now holds every record, bar one, in the 53kg weight category from senior down to under 14 level. Days after her 13th birthday, she lifted 59kg to break the under18 snatch record set 11 years previously by Michaela Breeze, Britain's most successful female weightlifter.Zoe, who was made a "sports ambassador" for Greenwich Council's Olympic Unit, has now set her sights on gaining an Olympic gold in 2012. She added: "Going to Beijing and actually watching a couple of Olympic weightlifting competitions and seeing the atmosphere and excitement of the home crowd cheering on their lifters has made me more determined than ever to try to make it to the 2012 Games in my own city. "Just being selected would be a dream come true and of course the ultimate aim for anyone would be to win the gold medal." (The

The Best Sportsmen of 2008

These outstanding sportsmen became the best of all athletes in their country last year : Albania: Erkland Qerimaj és Romela Begaj Belarus : Andrei Aramnau Ecuador: Alexandra Escobar Germany.: Matthias Steiner Vietnam: Hoang Anh-Tuan Korea : actually, there was no voting organized by jounalists for best sportsmen of.the country.But Korea Sports Council (Korean Olympic Committee)announced The best sportsmen of Korea for 2008 as follows. o Women: Ms. Jang Mi-ran(Weightlifting) o Men: Mr. Park Tae-Hwan(Swimming, 2008 Beijing Olympic Gold Medalist)(No information on North Korea, Thailand, Kazakhstan voting.) Mi-Ran & Qingquan the Best lifters of Asia JANG Mi -Ran (Korea) +75kg lifter in a hard competition with her rivals, could allocate the title to be the best Asian woman lifter in 2008. She had succeeded to show considerable progress in comparison to 2004 Athens Olympic, could improve the records of Olympic for 7 times and the world records for 5 times in her category. Mi-Ran, in the Asian Interclub Championships held in Go Yang, Korea, by reaping the three gold medals, was determined as the best woman lifter. All Asian men lifters, who had achieved the gold medal were enough adequate to be nominated as the best lifter of the year, but at last, among the Chinese Long Qingquan, the Korean SA Jae-Hyouk, The Chinese LU Yong and the Kazak ILIN Ilya, lfinally the points of LONG Qingquan (China, 56kg category) overcame other rivals' points with a little difference and was known as the best of Asia. He is considered as the youngest Olympic Champion in weightlifting history. Barbados : Ivorn Mcknee is Sports personality of the year Barbados' Sports Personality for 2008 is Ivorn McKnee, a gold medalist at last year's Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships. Chairman of the National Sports Council (NSC), Henry Inniss, announced that after much deliberation, Mr. McKnee, who had an outstanding year which culminated with a gold medal winning performance in Cyprus in December, had been selected. "What made Ivorn's performance even more outstanding were the conditions under which weightlifting has struggled over the years in Barbados. Against the odds, Ivorn prevailed and has given hope to athletes from minor sports that through commitment and hard work they can excel," he said. "I think it is critical that people understand that this National Sports Council ... can think outside the box and look at individuals who in other circumstances might not have reached the level that they have attained. Obviously the Sports Personality of the Year is the major award to be announced." - Chairman of the NSC's Awards Committee, Andrew Sealy told reporters. He pointed out that the Board was very pleased with Mr. McKnee's performance, especially since weightlifting had operated under difficult circumstances over the years. "In fact, the board has taken a decision that we are going to work very closely with the Amateur Weightlifting Association over the next few years, because we feel that the Barbados Amateur Weightlifting Association has a particularly good product and some good athletes that can take Barbados forward," Mr. Sealy stated. The Chairman explained that a car was given to the Sports Personality of the Year because "we really wanted to give the award prominence". Commonwealth weightlifting champion Ivorn McKnee was the national sports personality of the year, taking the grand prize of a Suzuki Swift, compliments Simpson Motors. McKnee was known in the late nineties for representing Barbados at the junior level in shot put. However his love for strength training made him try out with weightlifting. That was a mere four years ago and just two years into taking up the sport McKnee placed eighth at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. McKnee would go onto to take Gold at the 2007 Pan Am Games and would return to the Commonwealth Games in 2008 to finally capure the gold medal. The Barbados Weightlifting Association also walked away with the Association For Achievement Award as well as the Coach of the Year award, which was awarded to Andrew Callender. Manueli Tulo, the 18 years old weightlifter from Fiji, who won the 56kg category gold medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India, won the Sportsman of the Year in Fiji. It was the first time that a weightlifter has won a prestigious award in Fiji such as this. He unfortunately was not able to receive his award because he was in New Caledonia training at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute. Kevan Gosper, IOC member and past IOC Vice President, was the guest speaker at the awards night. 14 year old weightlifter Zoe Smith has been voted 2008 "Athlete of the Year" in her sport by the British Olympic Association. This title is usually reserved for Olympic medallists, but she was given the award after taking gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune,

IWF Auditors meeting in Budapest

All the three members of the IWF Auditors' Committee met in Budapest, prior to the Electoral Congress, to carry out the Audit of the International Weightlifting Federation's books and accounts.Horst Tischler (SUI), Karl Rimböck (GER) and Margarita Nikolova (BUL) with the IWF President, after having completed their job at the IWF Secretariat.

President Sólyom Awards IWF President for long lasting contribution to sports development

At the Houses of Parliament in Budapest, the President of the Republic of Hungary László Sólyom presented Dr. Tamás Aján, IWF President, IOC Member with the state award, the Middle Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in recognition of his dedication and long lasting contribution to the development of

Ruth Kasirye, Norwegian champion

Ruth Kasirye (1982 - Tonsberg - 62.76 kg), Olympic participant 2008 in Beijing, was the absolute super star of the National Norwegian Championships on 6th and 7th March in Spydeberg. With 106 kg in the snatch, 125 kg and 130 kg in the clean and jerk as well as with 226 kg, 231 kg and 236 kg in the total she established six national records in the 63 kg category. Anja-Evelin Jordalen (1987 - Bjorgvin - 70.29 kg) could also come up with records. She set four new records in the 75 kg category with 90 kg in the snatch, 113 kg in the clean and jerk as well as with 200 kg and 203 kg in the total. Of course Ruth Kasirye was the best female lifter of the championships with 294.10 Sinclair points ahead of Anja-Evelin Jordalen with 236.79 points. Per Hordnes (1981 - Bjorgvin - 93.34 kg) was the best male participant with 374.32 points ahead of Jarleif Amdal (1988 - Vigrestad - 84.31 kg) with 358.74

Olympic champion Aramnau gets ban for drinking

Olympic champion Andrei Aramnau of Belarus was handed a two-year suspended ban from competition on Friday after driving while intoxicated for the second time in less than three months. The 20-year-old, who won gold in Beijing by breaking several world records in the 105kg weight class, was first caught driving drunk in December before he repeated the offence last month, just a day after receiving keys for a new apartment. Belarus Sports Minister Alexander Grigorov, who headed the disciplinary hearing, told Reuters: "The Olympic success obviously went to his head. He is young and he couldn't handle it in a right way. We gave him a suspended sentence because we didn't want to lose him as an athlete." Aramnau, who also faces criminal charges for being a repeat offender, was stripped of a presidential monthly stipend worth more than $5,000. However, Grigorov said Aramnau, who won his first world title in 2007 as a 19-year-old, could be given a second chance. "If he retains the world title this year, he would get the stipend back," Grigorov said.