News

IWF Executive Board met in Budapest

Today, on 19 February 2009, the IWF Executive Board started its 2-day meeting in Budapest, Hungary. Dr. Ottó Török, State Secretary of Sport welcomed the Board in the city where the IWF has been headquartered for 32 years, under the leadership of President Dr. Tamás Aján.Among the first decisions of the Board was to replace the still existing Olympic Standards with Olympic Records, which will be the same as the best results achieved in the respective category and lift at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.A progress report of the host Thai Weightlifting Association (TAWA) was received on the 1st Youth World Championships, which will be held in ChiangMai, Thailand, 19-24 May 2009. The EGAT YWC website is now in operation: YWC 2009. In this connection, the Executive Board approved to establish youth world records, prior to the 1st Youth World Championships, based on the continental youth records already existing.The Executive Board approved the affiliation of 3 new members:- Gambia (Africa)- Laos (Asia)- Mauritania (Africa)raising the IWF's membership to 187 countries. On the second meeting day the Board discussed and decided the following:- Major Guidelines of the Olympic Qualification System for the 2012 London Olympic Games - The System will be nearly the same as for Beijing 2008, with refinements and adjustments regarding gender proportions and a balance between world and continental qualification. The final version will be published before the Electoral Congress.- National Federations' eligibility for voting and presenting candidates at the IWF Electoral Congress in Madrid. - See News The Executive Board was given a reception at the Parliament House by Mr. István Gyenesei, Minister of Local Government in charge of Sport.

2008 Lifters of the Year: Liu Chunhong and Matthias Steiner

2008 Lifters of the Year: Liu Chunhong and Matthias Steiner   At the end of 2008, World Weightlifting, the International Weightlifting Federation's official quarterly - according to its traditions - asked the weightlifting public of the world to vote for the best weightlifters of the year. It was the 27th Lifter of the Year election for the men, and the 18th election for the women. For the first time, online voting was available on this website. Voting ballots were sent from all the five continents. The final ranking was produced on the basis of 456 votes. That was the absolute record so far and we want to thank all those who voted for their chosen favourites. The following scoring system was applied: a vote for 1st place: 7 points, 2nd place: 5 points, 3rd place: 4 points. 2008 was an Olympic year, so obviously the competition was among the champions of Beijing 2008. It must be noted that over 200 invalid ballots were received for the young Junior world record holder Iranian Saied Alihosseini (probably all from Iranian sources). The Voting Supervisor Commission decided not to validate these, so the talented young superheavyweight lifter finally did not make it to the top ranks. Among the women, Chinese Liu Chunhong proved to be the Best of 2008. Liu won her second Olympic gold medal and set up further five world records in Beijing. Among the men, Matthias Steiner from Germany, the +105kg hero received the highest number of votes. Lifter of the Year 2008 - Men       Points 1st place 2nd place 3rd place 1 STEINER Matthias GER 896 47 78 44 2 ARAMNAU Andrei BLR 879 39 74 59 3 ZHANG Xiangxiang CHN 859 41 76 50 4 ILIN Ilya KAZ 772 28 72 54 5 LONG Qingquan CHN 724 60 8 66 6 LU Yong CHN 576 26 34 56 7 LIAO Hui CHN 548 8 56 53 8 SA Jae-Hyouk KOR 516 8 44 60 9 DABAYA Vencelas FRA 79 2 9 5 10 CHIGISHEV Evgeny RUS 71 5 0 9 11 RYBAKOU Andrei BLR 41 0 5 40 12 GOEGEBUER Tom BEL 32 4 0 1 13 KOLECKI Szymon POL 14 2 0 0 14 SCERBATIHS Viktors LAT 10 0 2 0 15 HOANG Anh Tuan VIE 5 0 1 0 HENNEQUIN Benjamin FRA 5 0 1 0 DOLEGA Marcin POL 5 0 1 0 SPIESS Jürgen GER 5 0 1 0 19 ZHANG Jie CHN 4 0 0 1 VELAGIC Almir GER 4 0 0 1 Lifter of the Year 2008 - Women       Points 1st place 2nd place 3rd place 1 LIU Chunhong CHN 1451 113 68 80 2 JANG Mi-Ran KOR 1307 52 111 97 3 CHEN Yanqing CHN 1197 107 48 52 4 CHEN Xiexia CHN 914 60 54 56 5 JAROENRATTANATARAKOO P. THA 872 43 83 39 6 PAK Hyon Suk PRK 769 43 52 52 7 CAO Lei CHN 741 35 36 79 8 ROHDE Julia GER 16 1 1 1 9 OZKAN Sibel TUR 7 1 0 0 VUKAS Silvana SRB 7 1 0 0 11 KOROBKA Olha UKR 5 0 1 0 USMAN Mariam NGR 5 0 1 0

African Congress in Tunis elects new leadership in friendly atmosphere

The Electoral Congress of the Weightlifting Federation of Africa, held under the auspices of the IWF on 5th February 2009 in Tunis, Tunisia, elected the new leadership of the Federation for the next term. The Congress, initiated by the IWF to replace the inconclusive Electoral Congress held in Egypt last October, was chaired by IWF President Dr Tamás Aján. The Tunisian Weightlifting Federation took over the technical organisation and played the host's role in an outstanding and exemplary manner.29 member countries of the WFA were in attendance with 21 enjoying voting rights in accordance with the WFA Constitution.One of the two candidates to President, Mr. Gamil Hanna (EGY), a co-founder of the WFA who had been bearing this title since 1986, resigned and ceded the President's position to Mr. Khaled Mhalhel (LBA) who was thus elected unopposed. The General Secretary's position was taken by Mr. Eshelli Manareddin (also from

German superstar weightlifter Matthias Steiner has just undergone surgery.

Matthias Steiner's Surgery German superstar weightlifter Matthias Steiner has just undergone surgery. "An inguinal hernia was ascertained on Monday," German weightlifting coach Michael Vater explained to IronMind, so on Tuesday the Olympic gold medalist underwent surgery. Vater said that there was no possibility of delaying the surgery because Steiner needs to focus on being in top condition for the World Weightlifitng Championships later this year. (by Randall J. Strossen)    

The ten best sportsmen of Belarus 2008 have been honoured at a ceremony

The ten best sportsmen of Belarus 2008 have been honoured at a ceremony in the Olympic press centre "Beijing - 2008" at the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus in Minsk. The annual award is in its 50th year and a record 136 Belarusian sports journalists took part in the voting. Andrey Ariamnou (weightlifting) was voted the top sportsman in Belarus. Top of10 best sportsmen of Belarus 2008: 1. Ariamnau Andrey (weightlifting) - 1258 points 2. Miankova Aksana (athletic) - 1162 3. Bahdanovitch Andrey and Aliaxandar (canoe) - 1031 4. Krauchanka Andrey (athletic) - 691 5. Rybakou Andrey (weightlifting) -

Record number of 118 candidates registered to the IWF elections

Before the 30 December 2008 deadline, the National Federations submitted the forms for an unprecedented number of 118 candidates to the upcoming elections at the IWF Electoral Congress in Madrid. Congress Delegates will vote on 1 April to elect the officials of the IWF Executive Board and its four Committees (Technical, Medical, Scientific & Research and Auditors). In the 109-year old history of the International Federation, never before had such enormous interest been registered in the positions on the leading bodies of the Federation. This is a clear indication that the sport of weightlifting has undoubtedly strengthened its status and prestige, with the smashing success of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games obviously contributing to its popularity and renown. Candidates to all posts of the IWF's governing bodies largely outnumber the vacancies, with the most candidatures submitted to the Executive Board Member (39) and to the Technical Committee Member (39) positions. There is only one exception: Dr. Tamás Aján (HUN) can face the election to IWF President unchallenged. If elected, the Hungarian would be President of the IWF for a third consecutive term, after having served six periods since 1976 as General Secretary.