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IWF EB Meeting in Riyadh: Another successful step forward!

Under the leadership of President Mohammed Jalood, the IWF Executive Board (EB) had a two-day meeting on September 10-11, on the occasion of a very successful 2023 edition of the IWF World Championships, taking place in Riyadh (KSA).    Welcoming his EB colleagues, Mr Jalood underlined that this is a “very decisive moment in the history of our International Federation, on the eve of the IOC decision related to the 2028 Olympic Games programme”. The IWF President then recalled that “the weightlifting family is working united for the development of the sport, as much progress has been seen since the election of the EB in June 2022”. The staging of the 2023 IWF showcase in Riyadh was cited as a good example of “how the IWF improved the organisation of its events. The bar was set very high here – we have a record number of athletes and participating countries, in a very beautiful venue. The Saudi authorities have produced a great show and have ensured the best possible conditions to all participants in these Championships, a mandatory competition for all those aspiring to compete in Paris next year at the Olympic Games”.   Mr Mohammed Al-Harbi, EB member and President of the Riyadh 2023 Organising Committee welcomed all his colleagues in Saudi Arabia and expressed his gratitude for the “IWF’s trust in awarding this so important competition to Riyadh”. Mr Al-Harbi then highlighted the “amazing efforts” of all authorities to ensure participants could enter the country. “Some delegations had some challenges in getting their visa, but at the end of the day, thanks to our effort and determination, they could be present and compete here”.   The main decisions and discussions at the IWF Executive Board meeting were:   - Unanimous validation of the final draft 2024-2032 IWF Strategic Plan, pending the official approval by the IWF Congress. This fundamental roadmap results from the broadest-ever consultation within the IWF Family, thus being a collective and consensual document, highlighting the main areas of attention and the necessary actions to implement them. Moreover, the Working Group in charge of the elaboration of this Plan will be kept in place, from now on as the Strategic Plan Monitoring Group;   - The Chair of the IWF Anti-Doping Commission, Mr Rune Andersen, announced that the pre-Olympic testing programme is on “the right track” and that the categorisation of National Member Federations will be enforced from November 1, 2023. According to this categorisation, IWF members will be included in three different groups, taking into account their doping history and many other criteria related to their national anti-doping strategy. For the nations in the A group, a minimum of two out-of-competition tests will be mandatory for eligible athletes for the Paris Games, while educational anti-doping courses are also compulsory; in the B group, the requirements include one test per athlete and optional education; countries in C group won’t need to fulfil any special requirements. The list of countries in each category is to be announced in October by the International Testing Agency (ITA); Mohammed Jalood (IWF President) and Ursula Papandrea (IWF First Vice-President) - Approval of a Working Group in charge of the implementation of the Gender Identity Policy. The first competition to be covered by these guidelines will be the IWF World Junior Championships, to be held in November in Guadalajara (MEX);    - The IWF Technical Committee also presented its recommendations, which include the implementation of a new, more modern TIS system, and the eventual creation of athlete’s qualification quotas at the IWF World Championships;   - Unanimous ratification of the 2022 IWF Audited Financial Statements, pending the final approval of the IWF Congress;    - Related to the Development Programme, and in co-operation with the Olympic Solidarity, a training camp with 10 young athletes (one male/one female per continent) is to be held in Mexico, prior to the staging of the IWF World Junior Championships in November. Moreover, a new update on the Coaches Licence Programme was also given to EB members – in Europe, a pilot programme will, for example, involve 300 coaches from 43 nations. Finally, new criteria and standards will be created to implement the IWF Academies – a project that is presently involving three universities in three continents (Americas – Cuba; Asia – China; Europa – Bulgaria); Forrester Osei (IWF Athletes Commission Chair) - The IWF Athletes Commission (AC) successfully presented its ideas concerning the reinforcement of the resources and number of lifters involved in the second “edition” of the “Direct Support Programme”, starting after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Moreover, the AC is studying the future implementation of an Athlete Transition Programme, aimed at supporting lifters after the conclusion of their competitive career;   - The EB also praised the success of the IWF Refugee Team programme, launched in 2023, which allowed the participation of three athletes at the IWF World Championships here in Riyadh. Two lifters from the team will also be invited to take part in the EWF Cup, taking place at the end of September in Ancient Olympia (GRE);    - Concerning the specific preparation for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Matthew Curtain and Moira Lassen, IWF Technical Delegates to the competition, underlined the importance of attending the Operational Test Event in August. Also on this topic, the EB approved the Terms of Reference and the members of the Commission in charge of analysing the submissions related to exemptions based on exceptional circumstances (as stipulated in the Qualification Rules for the 2024 Olympics). Out of the five members of the Commission, three (with voting rights) were recommended by the International Testing Agency, while the two IWF representatives have no voting rights within the Commission;     - The EB also approved a temporary committee to study the creation of a regional francophone organisation, gathering the nations having French as one of their official languages;    - Updated reports were given by the organisers of the upcoming IWF events: IWF World Junior Championships (Guadalajara, MEX – November 2023); IWF World Cup (Phuket, THA – April 2024); IWF World Youth Championships (Lima, PER – May 2024); IWF World Junior Championships (Leon, ESP – September 2024); IWF World Championships (Manama, BRN – December 2024). Two of the highlights from these presentations include the Green Legacy Programme implemented by the Guadalajara hosts, whereby each participating athlete in the competition will plant a tree, which will be named after him/her, and the use in Lima, for the first time in an IWF event, of two competition platforms.    The IWF EB meeting precedes the gathering of the IWF’s National Member Federations at the IWF Congress, to be held also in the Saudi capital on September 12, 2023. Practical procedures related to the running of the Congress were also discussed at the Executive Board meeting. IWF Communications Photos by Giorgio

Riyadh, Day 7: Photo Gallery

All photos by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia [gallery size="large"

Riyadh, Day 7: Colombia, Nigeria and Korea celebrate after weird and wonderful 64kg contest

The women’s 64kg at the IWF World Championships will go down as one of the strangest in the sport’s history. Two Colombians who are not just from the same city but the same weightlifting club went head-to-head before one of them won the world title while the other was knocked off the podium by two B Group lifters, one of whom had never lifted in international competition before. Ruth Ayodele from Nigeria, making her debut at the age of 23, then delayed the medal ceremony because nobody could find her. Nathalia Llamosa (COL) Eventually she made her way down from the seats to the right of the platform, where she had watched the action, to declare, “That was so exciting – I never thought I would win a medal.” It would have been gold if Nathalia Llamosa had not made the last lift of the night, a clean and jerk of 122kg. Llamosa, 26, was cheered from the stands as she made it to finish 101-122-223, which was well below her career best but enough to edge out Ayodele, on 100-122-222, by 1kg. Ruth Ayodele (NGR) The clean and jerk gold, and bronze on total, went to another B Group lifter, 27-year-old Park Minkyung from Korea who made 97-123-220. That was the same total as Llamosa’s clubmate, training partner and close friend Julieth Rodriguez in fourth. Rodriguez, 21, matched Llamosa lift for lift as both snatched 101kg, but made only one clean and jerk to the winner’s three and ended with only a snatch silver. Park Minkyung (KOR) Four A Group athletes failed to make a total. Rodriguez and Llamosa train together in Palmira, a stronghold of weightlifting. “It’s always kilo by kilo between us and because of that we always push each other in training,” said Llamosa, the first non-Asian winner at these Championships after nine medal events. She was proud of her victory, which was “the result of working so hard in weightlifting since I started 16 years ago”, she said. Asked why Ayodele had been such a late starter, Nigeria’s head coach Ojadi Aduche said, “She was in the team some years ago, then things happened in her life and she took a break from the sport. Julieth Rodriguez (COL) “She is very strong and I recalled her to the team recently.” This was the second impressive performance of the week by a Nigerian, after Rafiatu Lawal’s big jump up the rankings at 59kg, and there could be more to come from Joy Eze at 71kg, Aduche said. Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photos by Giorgio

Riyadh, Day 6: Photo Gallery

All photos by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia [gallery size="large"

Riyadh, Day 6: C Group teenager saves Asia’s 100% record at IWF World Championships

The Thai teenager Weeraphon Wichuma caused a sensation at the IWF World Championships by setting a junior world record and winning gold by a wide margin from the C Group in the men’s 73kg Olympic category. It is the first time a C Group lifter has ever won gold at a major competition. Wichuma, who won youth and junior world titles in the past two years, added his first senior success by posting 24kg more than his entry total with a five-from-six 154-195-349, more than seven hours before the A Group lifters went into action. Weeraphon Wichuma (THA) There were more than 60 red lights and six bombouts in the B and A Groups that followed, and as one prospective challenge after another petered out, 19-year-old Wichuma was left clear, winning by 12kg. He watched the A session on the big screen in the warm-up room while helping his team-mate Jeeram Suttipong, who made only one good lift. “It was so exciting, I feel so proud,” Wichuma said on the stage after being presented with his medal. Wei Yinting from China was second despite making only two good lifts on 157-180-337, and Muhammad Ozbek from Turkey third on 147-187-334. Bak Joohyo from Korea, who snatched 143kg, won clean and jerk silver ahead of Ozbek, both on 187kg. Wei Yinting (CHN) Wichuma’s remarkable victory maintained Asia’s 100% winning record after eight medal events in Riyadh, and continued the success of lifters whose entry totals were not high enough for a place in the A Group. Five medals have been won by C Group athletes, three medallists came from the B Group, and the Madagascar lifter Tojo Andriantsitohaina was 1kg away from winning the snatch bronze tonight from the D Group. Wichuma’s previous best total was 342kg, made last time out when he was second by 2kg to Masanori Miyamoto from Japan, who was 19kg behind the Thai here. His final effort at 195kg took the clean and jerk junior world record from Rizki Juniansyah, the Indonesian who weighed in but withdrew because of an abdominal injury. Rizki’s team-mate Rahmat Erwin, who leads the Olympic rankings, lifts in the 81kg category, as does Olympic champion Shi Zhiyong from China, who is returning from injury. Muhammad Ozbek (TUR) China’s Wei was one lift and a few centimetres away from a bombout, but he rescued his final snatch right on the edge of the platform and on 157kg he looked capable of catching Wichuma. But he missed his first two clean and jerks and finished 12kg behind. Ritvars Suharevs from Latvia made his first two snatches, taking bronze on 154kg, then missed all three clean and jerks. Only three athletes made a total in the B Group, and arguably the happiest of them was Luis Javier Mosquera from Colombia, who had not competed for 15 months because of hand, adductor and shoulder injuries. He failed with his first two clean and jerks but made the third for 150-175-325. “I’m happy with that because I’ve only been training for a month,” said the Tokyo 67kg silver medallist. Mosquera will go to the Pan American Games in Chile before continuing his Paris qualifying effort in Qatar in the IWF Grand Prix II in December. By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photos by Giorgio

IWF/ITA Anti-Doping Education Seminar: the importance of making the right choice

More than 85 athletes and respective support personnel were today present at the IWF/ITA Anti-Doping Education Seminar, organised in Riyadh on the occasion of the IWF World Championships in Saudi Arabia. It was a privileged opportunity for many lifters and their entourage to acquire updated information about the anti-doping activities carried out by the International Testing Agency on behalf of our International Federation. The seminar was lectured by Christine Girard (CAN), ITA Ambassador, and double Olympic medallist in weightlifting. Antonio Urso, the IWF Secretary General, welcomed the participants to the meeting.   “Our International Federation is undertaking a huge transformation and this relates to the culture change that is needed in the field of doping. We had serious problems in the past, but we have changed the paradigm and today, thanks to the collaboration and partnership with the ITA we have a solid, transparent, and reliable strategy,” Mr Urso considered.   Antonio Urso, IWF Secretary General The IWF official recalled one decisive area of improvement: “The level of education has dramatically increased and this is the best guarantee for a successful programme. The main problem with doping is the athletes’ entourage. If ethics is missing, this support personnel will oblige the athlete to cheat. We need to change this, and we are doing it!”   Mr Urso was very clear on IWF’s determination to eradicate doping in sport: “We don’t want cheaters in our Sport! We may lose some countries, punished by our strict rules, but if this is necessary, so be it! We want to keep only the people working honestly, with professionalism, and with a real sense of ethics. We are spending more than one-third of our annual budget on anti-doping operations. We could spend part of this money on development actions – it would be much more useful for so many countries. But, as we are 100% committed to ensuring a clean sport, this effort is still necessary”.   Christine Girard then briefed all the attendees on the specificities of the anti-doping policies, namely the definition and scope of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation, the knowledge of the Prohibited Substances’ list, the correct identification of eventual medication taken by the athletes, and the risks related with the intake of supplements.   Christine Girard, ITA Ambassador “Unlike the medicaments, the labelling of supplements is not so strict, so you’ll never have the guarantee that the intake of supplements is risk-free. You must all be aware of that. There isn’t in the market a single supplement that is 100% safe!” she explained.   Besides the unethical aspect of doping, Ms Girard explained that the ingestion of prohibited substances “represents a huge danger to the athlete’s health. And in most of the cases, the consequences are irreversible, they will stay for all your life. You should never forget this!”   Born in January 1985, Christine Girard was one of the most talented Canadian lifters of her generation. She started in the sport when she was 10, much because of her sister’s influence. She progressed quickly and at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she was fourth in the 63kg – four years later in London, she did better, with a bronze medal in the same category.     Things could have ended there, but some years later, with the re-analysis of Olympic samples and consequent disqualification of several lifters, she was “upgraded” to the bronze for the 2008 Games and to the gold for the British rendezvous. “When the news came out in 2018, I had already my children, we were at home in Canada, and the new medals came. Of course, it was a great joy for me, but I had missed the ‘moment’ during the Games’ time. In London, had I won the gold while being there, I would have been the only Canadian with that status for three days. Imagine the marketing opportunities I lost on that occasion…”   After these unfortunate circumstances, Girard decided to get involved in anti-doping education. A way, according to the Olympic champion, to “prevent that a similar situation to mine could occur with others”. Named ITA Ambassador on this field, the Canadian, also a member of the IWF Anti-Doping Commission, wanted to “actively promote clean sport. It’s a beautiful fight, one that is definitively worth doing for all our athletes”.   At the Tokyo 2020ne Games, when her compatriot Maude Charron took the gold in the same category and with the same total (236kg) as Girard eight years before, the ITA Ambassador lived a rare moment of emotion: “I was very happy that she could enjoy her title, her gold medal there! I was already involved in the fight for a clean sport, so I thought that the efforts were paying off. All the athletes competing there, in Japan, looked in a much better health condition compared with the ones I had to face. That was definitively a sign that things were going in the right direction”.     Commenting on the words of Mr Urso concerning the “culture change” within the IWF circles, Girard admits: “It takes time, but we improved a lot! We arrived at a point where many coaches did not know how to prepare their athletes without doping. They had to learn everything from the beginning – results only come with hard work, not with ‘magic’ pills”.   Reflecting on the risks to the athletes’ health, the Canadian concedes that many “athletes are not aware of those very negative consequences. We need to educate them for this aspect so that they don’t regret their bad choices at a later stage of their lives”.    After this seminar, also attended by the CEO of the Saudi Arabian Andi-Doping Committee Mr Khudair Mohammad Alkhudhair, athletes and their entourage are invited to visit until September 11 the IWF/ITA Anti-Doping Education booth, located in the Fan Zone of the Championships. Christine Girard will run the stand and provide all relevant information to participants seeking further knowledge on this matter.   By Pedro Adrega, IWF Communications   Photos by Giorgio