News

Three new world champions crowned

Women`s 58kg:  The category fielding 30 competitors featured the first encounter between a Russian and a Chinese favourite. In the first part Russian Svetlana Tsarukaeva defeated her Chinese opponent by 1 kg, but Qiu Hongmei took back the lead in clean and jerk, sweeping in the total gold medal. Meanwhile, Wandee Kameaim of Thailand became victorious in clean and jerk. Thus the women`s 58kg celebrated three new world champions. Qiu Hongmei attempted to break a world record in jerk but she failed.Qiu Hongmei

Stars meet in a facedown in 77kg

Men`s 77kg: In the category counting 51 participants we saw the first ever facedown between the Olympic champion, 21-year old Turkish Taner Sagir and the defending world champion Chinese . Sagir had first become an Olympic champion in Athens 2004, before eventually capturing his first world title in Santo Domingo. In the snatch, Li Hongli took the gold medal, whereas the clean and jerk title went to Oleg Perepetchenov (RUS), who had zeroed in snatch. Sagir did not only work off his disadvantage in clean and jerk, but he gained as much lead that made it unnecessary for him to take a third attempt to be awarded the total gold in the 77kg. Li Hongli CHN Sagir Taner

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