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China continues with more records

Women`s 53kg: In this category (29 entries) another Chinese debutante Qiu Hongxia swept with new world records. Although new to the world championships, the Chinese woman scored a devastating victory (16kg) over a more well-known figure of the sport: Raema Lisa Rumbewas from Indonesia. One of the local favourites, Yuderqi Contreras ? former bronze medal winner in events held outside her country ? was unfortunately unable to please the home crowds with medals. Qiu Hongxia improved the clean and jerk world record to 128kg and the total record to 226kg. Qiu Hongxia

Four world records at the outset

Women`s 48kg: In the opening category of the ladies 21 competitors were lined up. The Chinese new entry Yang Lian put down her visit card with fantastic results. Born in 1982, Yang collected all the three gold medals setting four world records: in snatch with 98kg, in clean and jerk with 119kg, and in total with 214kg and 217kg. She beat the runner-up and the third-place winner by 29kg. The podium was fully occupied by Asians.Yang Lian

Frenchman Dabaya is the 500th World Champion

The 75th Men`s and 18th Women`s World Championships are going on in Santo Domingo. Impressive fields are fighting exciting battles for the medals and their countries`Olympic places.Men's 56kg: Two Chinese were at the start among the 32 competitors and they were expected to gain a few medals. Surprisingly, however, only one of the Chinese stood through the end, because one of the country`s biggest stars, Wu Meijin - a man only Mutlu could defeat - dropped out in both snatch and in clean and jerk. Last year`s snatch world champion Li Zheng eventually won in this category, adding the total honours to his snatch gold medal. The total medals were shared by China, Cuba and Vietnam. In clean and jerk, Cuba celebrated a new world champion: Sergio Alvarez Boulet.Men's 62kg: In a field of 42 athletes once again there were two Chinese and once again one of them got eliminated. The unfortunate was Zhang Ping, whereas the ultimate winner was Qiu Le, thus defending his world champion title from Doha. The two other steps of the total podium were occupied by Colombia - major success for this country. Manuel Minginfel won a surprising silver medal for FSM (Federated States of Micronesia). Qiu Le CHNMen`s 69kg: There were altogether 32 competitors in the start list. Olympic champion Nicolai Peshalov was to compete in group B and ? although weighed in and introduced ? failed to appear on stage, referring to an injury in the warming up. In what proved to be an excellent and thrilling contest, Olympic and multiple world champion Chinese Shi Zhiyong got defeated by Frenchman  Vencelas Dabaya in the total. Having represented Cameoon in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens where he was 5th, Dabaya moved to France and won his first medals last year in Doha for his new country. As France celebrated its last total world champion in 1922, Dabaya put an end to 84 years of dearth. (Daniel Senet was the last French to win a gold in the World Championships, but only in snatch. That happened exactly 25 years ago in Lille.) Dabay's happiness was doubled when he learned that he became weightlifting`s 500th World Champion and received the special IWF Award for this honour.Vencelas Dabaya

Sensational fields in Santo Domingo

An impressively large field of 569 competitors from 79 countries will compete in the first Qualification event for the 2008 Olympic Games, i.e. the 2006 World Championships of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.44 nations are represented in the women`s categories by 203 athletes, and 366 male competitors are expected to come from 73 nations. The countries are obviously bringing their strongest teams, as the fields include Olympic and world champions and a sensational number of 188 weightlifters who have already won medals in Olympic Games, Senior, Junior or University World

IWF membership grows to 178

Two new nations were affiliated to the International Federation at its Annual Congress on 29 September 2006: Northern Ireland and Turks and Caicos. The IWF now counts a membership of 178

IWF Executive taking firm stance for a clean sport

On the eve of the 2006 Qualification World Championships in Santo Domingo, the IWF Executive Board reconfirmed its relentless battle against doping in the sport it had started 30 years ago. In a close and detailed study of the doping controls carried out in 2006 since 1st January up to the Championships, the Board stated with regret that the number of positive findings was higher than in previous years. Up until the World Championships the IWF alone had conducted 1233 tests, of which 37 male and 16 female competitors returned a positive sample. This higher figure was partly due to more intensive and more extensive testing, partly due to brand new analysis methods introduced by the Cologne laboratory (where the IWF has most of its testing analysed) in the middle of the year. It had to be noted that four countries had 3 or more positives: Argentina, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia. The IWF has obliged the National Federations concerned to conducting a specific investigation into each and every case, detecting also which individuals ? coaches, doctors ? are also responsible and take the necessary sanctions against them. Besides that, permanent controls would be imposed on the countries concerned ? at their cost ? including the obligation to implement an Educational and Prevention Program.In the same meeting the Executive Board reconfirmed its resolution from before Athens, i.e. that any athlete found positive in the 2004 Olympic Games would be banned from participation in Beijing 2008. Even if they can take part in the Qualification events, their results will not be counted in the qualification of the