News

UESAKA E-mail Club Tournament registered 1,050 entries

It is great news for weightlifting sent by Paul Coffa, OWF General Secretary from Samoa.The Uesaka Email International Club Tournament has just concluded and it has certainly set new records.1050 lifters from 128 clubs world wide entered the tournament. Organizers were delighted to see that clubs from each of the five continents took part.  You can find all the results on the Oceania Weightlifting Federation website 

Chinese sweep Asian Championships on home turf

China launched many of its Olympic and world champions at the Asian Championships held in Tai'an City, Shendong Province, and retained the bulk of honours at the event. In fact, in each of the seven women's categories there was a Chinese winner. Chen Xiexia (48kg), Li Ping (53kg) and Qiu Hongmei (58kg) set up new world and world junior records.In the men's field, Vietnamese prodigy Hoang Anh Tuan confirmed his position as the champion, defeating two Chinese rivals. In the absence of a few stars (e.g. Ilin from Kazakhstan or Reza Zadeh from Iran), the categories from 62kg to 85kg were taken by Chinese competitors, among them names like Shi Zhiyong or Li Hongli. Asian Games winner Syrian Ahed Joughili won in 105kg by a large margin over Qatar's former star Assad Saeed Said Saif. Even more surprising was the victory of an emerging Chinese superheavy, Sun Haibo, who beat Olympic medallist Jaber Salem with an impressive 431kg result he meant as an introduction.The men's only world record was born in the 62kg: 177kg clean and jerk by Yang Fan (CHN).For world records, see: http://www.iwf.net/iwf/events/wr/record_cur.phpFor results, see:

Youth Olympic Games

The IOC Executive Board met in Beijing and has approved unanimously to propose the creation of Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to the Session in Guatemala City in July. This project will allow the IOC to offer young people an event with competitions adapted to their age and development. The YOG will comprise a strong educational and cultural component. This will be a powerful initiative to expose young people to the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect, and it will be an opportunity to inform them about threats such as doping, violence and over-commercialisation of sport. The first edition of the Youth Olympic Games would be tentatively set for 2010. In his earlier conversation with IWF President Dr. Tamas Ajan, the IOC President had said "Weightlifting must be on the program" of the

IWF President in Beijing at SportAccord

ASOIF, IOC, GAISF, BOCOG 2008 and other important organisations hold their annual summit with participation of nearly 2,000 participants: the cream of the world's sports leaders and administrators.Dr. Jacques Rogge, President IOC in the company of Dr. Tamas Ajan and Mr. Ma Wenguang, President Chinese Association and IWF Vice

France celebrates defending champion Dabaya – Armenian women excel at EC

Surprise at the 2007 European Championships in Strasbourg: neither one of the two Olympic champions in attendance could win gold. Nurcan TAYLAN (TUR) lost to Spain's Estefania JUAN in the 48kg, while Taner SAGIR (TUR) won only two bronzes in the men's 77kg.At the same time, last year's champion, favourite of the home crowd, Vencelas DABAYA defended his title and won gold in jerk and total in the men's 69kg. Latvian giant, Viktors SCERBATIHS confirmed his position as the strongest European.In the women's field, besides the Russians SHAINOVA (58kg) and SLIVENKO (69kg), Armenian ladies have pushed forward and took gold in two categories. One of them, Meline DALUZYAN set two junior world records in 63kg (135kg clean and jerk and 243kg total), while the other one, Hripsime KHURSUDYAN excelled in the 75kg. The strongest lady on the continent, Olha KOROBKA (UKR) reconfirmed her supremacy with a new European record in snatch: 133kg in the +75kg category.For complete results, go to:

Jacques Rogge, IOC President, welcomes the efforts of the IWF

In an interview published on the fringe of the European Championships in France's sports daily L'Equipe, Dr. Jacques ROGGE, President of the International Olympic Committee referred to the IWF as "an example?. The article was written by Alain Lunzenfichter.- How do you judge the efforts of the IWF in the fight against doping?-The fight by the International Weightlifting Federation is exemplary. Exemplary because it puts an enormous financial effort in doping control, both in the detection and the education. It is very difficult, since weightlifting is the type of sport where anabolic substances can help a lot in the performance of the champions, which often explains the temptation of athletes to balance on the wrong side of the barrier.- Are there still certain people who want to exclude weightlifting from the Olympic Games?-         It is ridiculous.  One will not punish a Federation, which makes all the necessary efforts to make its sport clean. The more controls you make, the more chance you have to find positive cases. It would undoubtedly be easier for the IWF not to make controls... then it would have no positives. By the way, I encourage the other Federations to take weightlifting?s example. Lately, the President of the UCI, Pat McQuaid, stated that he wants to eradicate doping from cycling: I can only support it.- Can we wipe out doping?- No, of course, there will always be athletes who are tempted to cheat; it is in the human nature. However, doping should be reduced to the lowest level possible. Certain sports have records that date back more than twenty-five years and they can still hold for another ten years. Yet I am not in favour of changing the categories or to reset the records, if at the back you do not make serious efforts to stop the cheaters.-------------------------------------------------------------------------Here is the article in French:JACQUES ROGGE, président du CIO, tient a saluer les efforts de la F�d�ration internationale d?halt�rophilie.? L?IWF est exemplaire ?? Comment jugez-vous les efforts de l?IWF pour lutter contre le dopage?- La lutte mise en place par la F�d�ration internationale d?halt�rophilie est exemplaire.  Exemplaire, car elle y met �norm�ment de moyens financiers, aussi bien pour la r�pression que pour l?�ducation.  C?est difficile, car l?halt�rophilie est le type m?me de sport ou les anabolisants apportent beaucoup � la performance des champions, ce qui explique souvent la tentation que peuvent avoir certains de basculer du mauvais cot� de la barri?re.- Certains sont toujours pour l?exclusion de l?halt�rophilie des JO ?- C?est ridicule.  On ne va pas punir une F�d�ration qui fait tous les efforts n�cessaires pour rendre son sport propre.  Plus vous faites de contr�les, plus vous avez de chances d?avoir des positifs.  Il serait sans doute plus ais� pour l?IWF de ne pas faire de contr�les? il n?y aurait aucun positif.  J?encourage d?ailleurs les autres F�d�rations � prendre exemple sur l?halt�rophilie.  Derni?rement, le pr�sident de l?UCI, Pat McQuaid, a d�clar� vouloir �radiquer le dopage dans le cyclisme, je ne peux que le soutenir.- Peut-on �radiquer le dopage ?- Non, bien sur, il y aura toujours des athl?tes qui auront la tentation de tricher, c?est dans la nature humaine.  Mais, en revanche, il faut amener le dopage a des niveaux insignifiants.  Certains sports ont des records qui datent de plus de vingt-cinq ans et ils peuvent encore tenir dix ans.  Pourtant, je ne suis pas partisan de changer les cat�gories ou remettre � plat les records, si derri?re vous ne faites pas une chasse stricte aux