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European Weightlifting Championships 2018: Ones to watch

With 124 men and 113 women representing a total of 31 countries across 48 events, the European Weightlifting Championships will bring together the continent’s top lifters for a week of unmissable action in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. Among those competing at the Championships – which will start this Monday, March 26, and conclude on the following Sunday, April 1 – will be Lasha Talakhadze and Lydia Valentín Perez, the winners of the IWF Men’s and Women’s 2017 Lifter of the Year awards. Talakhadze and Valentín were both gold medal-winners at the IWF World Championships in Anaheim at the end of last year and will be hunting gold again in Bucharest. Georgian Talakhadze, lifting in the men’s +105kg division, is gunning for a third consecutive triumph at the European Weightlifting Championships, having topped the podium in Førde (Norway) in 2016 and Split (Croatia) in 2017. [caption id="attachment_20903" align="alignright" width="265"] Georgia's Lasha Talakhadze[/caption] [caption id="attachment_20850" align="alignleft" width="250"] Spain's Lydia Valentin[/caption] COMPETITIVE DIVISIONS Talakhadze will be up against compatriot Irakli Turmanidze, as well as the likes of Hungarian Péter Nagy and Czech Republic lifter Jiří Orság. Elsewhere in the men’s competition, Artūrs Plēsnieks and Krzysztof Zwarycz will hope to go one better after claiming silver medals at the World Championships, but both will have to contend with fiercely competitive divisions. In the 105kg category, Latvian Plēsnieks’ rivals will include Austrian Sargis Martirosjan, while in the 85kg division, Croatian Amar Musić’s record total score of 355kg matches that of Zwarycz. Romanian athletes, who will be roared on by the home support, are set to be in medal contention in several of the men’s divisions. Home hopes will be pinned on athletes such as Nicolae Onica in the 94kg division, Ionut Ilie in the 62kg category and Paul Dumitrascu in the 69kg division, although the latter will face tough competition from the likes of Bernardin Matam, who took a bronze medal home to France following last year’s World Championships. [caption id="attachment_20778" align="alignright" width="248"] Hometown girl - Loredana Toma[/caption] [caption id="attachment_20787" align="alignnone" width="254"] France's Bernadin Matam[/caption] HOME HOPEFULS Romanian fans will also be targeting medals in the women’s competition, with Mădălina Molie and Loredana Toma, who picked up a gold medal in Anaheim, considered by many to be the two front-runners in the 63kg division. Also representing the host nation will be Andreea Aanei, who has the top personal best total score in the +90kg category, as well as Florina Sorina Hulpan and Elena Andrieș, who are seen as two of the top lifters in the 69kg and 48kg divisions, respectively. Irina Lepșa is in the running in the 58kg category, although Latvian Rebeka Koha is likely to start as the favourite due to her bronze in Anaheim and the fact that her personal best total score is 11kg heavier than her nearest challenger. Anastasiia Hotfrid, another member of a strong Georgian contingent in Bucharest, will also start as the favourite in the 90kg, having won gold at the World Championships in Anaheim last December. Meanwhile, in the 75kg division, French lifter Gaëlle Nayo-Ketchanke, who finished in third place in Anaheim, will be hoping to knock Lydia Valentín off the top spot. However, it would be a brave person to bet against Valentín, for whom this event carries extra significance. The charismatic Spaniard picked up her first major senior medal – a bronze – at the 2007 edition in Strasbourg, France, and has gone on to dominate the division at the European Weightlifting Championships, with three golds in 2014, 2015 and 2017. -- Follow IWF: Facebook Instagram Twitter

2018 YOG Continental Qualification Events

1. African Youth & Junior Championships 23-30 March 2018, Cairo, EGY RESULTS BOOK Youth / Junior 2. Asian Youth & Junior Championships 20-30 April 2018, Urgench, UZB RESULTS BOOK Youth / Junior 3. Pan-American Youth Championships 03-10 June 2018, Palmira, COL RESULTS BOOK Youth 4. Oceania Senior, Junior & Youth Championships 26-30 June 2018, Mont Dore, NCL RESULTS BOOK Youth / Junior / Senior 5. European Youth Championships 22-29 July 2018, Milan, ITA RESULTS BOOK

The European Weightlifting Championships: A Brief History

The European Weightlifting Championships is one of the oldest annual events on the international sporting calendar... The first edition was held in the Dutch city of Rotterdam in 1896 – the same year of the first modern Olympic Games. This landmark year for the sport laid the foundations for the rise in the global popularity of weightlifting in the years and generations to come. After visiting the Austrian capital of Vienna in its second year, the Championships returned to the Netherlands, and stayed there, for the next seven years, with the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam all staging the event. The Championships landed in Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Germany and Hungary in the following years before settling again in Austria for three consecutive editions, up until the start of the First World War. [caption id="attachment_21557" align="aligncenter" width="501"] Halil Mutlu (56kg)[/caption] UNMOVABLE CELEBRATION Since the event’s return to the calendar in 1921, it has never been staged in the same country two years in a row. It was not until after the conclusion of the Second World War that the event became a permanent annual celebration of Europe’s top weightlifters. Since 1947, the Championships has visited 32 different territories and produced some incredible performances in the process. In the European Weightlifting Federation records list, several benchmarks have been set at European Weightlifting Championships over the years. In the men’s 105kg+ division, German Ronny Weller lifted a European record of 260kg in the clean and jerk in front of his home fans in Riesa in 1998. Two years’ later, Polish lifter Szymon Kolecki produced a clean and jerk lift of 232kg in the 94kg category in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, while in 2001, Turkish athlete Halil Mutlu, in the 56kg division, set another European benchmark of 168kg in the clean and jerk at the Championships in Trencin, Slovakia. Those records still stand to this day for European athletes, as does the feat of Croatian Nikolai Pechalov, who produced a total lift of 325kg in the 62kg category at the 2000 Championships in Sofia. [caption id="attachment_21559" align="alignleft" width="274"] Ronny Weller (+105kg)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_21560" align="alignright" width="234"] Nikolai Pechalov (62kg)[/caption] RECORD-BREAKERS While this year’s event in Bucharest, Romania, from March 26 to April 1, will be the 97th edition of the annual European competition for male athletes. For women, this will be the 31st edition of the annual event. The inaugural Women’s European Weightlifting Championships took place in San Marino in 1988, but 10 years later, the women’s and men’s events came together to take place in the same city for the first time – Riesa in Germany. The dual Championships for men and women in the same city has continued to this day. In the Polish city of Wladyslawowo in 2006, Russian Svetlana Shimkova set a new European best of 141kg in the 63kg women’s clean and jerk division, once again proving that these Championships are where records are made. This year’s event will once again feature the continent’s best, with top lifters from across Europe ready to compete for a place on the podium across a total of 48 events. Stay tuned for the results! -- Follow IWF: Facebook Instagram Twitter

The EWF Scientific Magazine’s latest issue is out

Check out the January - April issue of the EWF Scientific Magazine

IWF confirmed WADA Code compliant

The International Weightlifting Federation - as one of the first IFs - has been confirmed WADA compliant as it continues to ensure it operates under the highest anti-doping standards. WADA announced the IWF’s compliance following the review of the IWF’s Corrective Action Report (CAR) which found that the IWF had properly completed all necessary requests through improvements. Speaking following the announcement, IWF President Tamas Ajan said: “We are very pleased that WADA has recognised the work the IWF has done in ensuring our anti-doping policies and practises are compliant with global best-practice. The IWF is completely committed to protecting clean athletes and will continue to implement robust anti-doping measures at both international and Member Federation level, to address the incidence of doping in the sport. The IWF highly values our partnerships with WADA and with National Anti-Doping Organisations across the world. And we are honoured that a representative of our federation was speaking on this issue of Code Compliance at the WADA Symposium in Lausanne.” Dr Eva Nyirfa, legal counsel to the IWF, participated in panel discussion entitled Code Compliance Monitoring – the ADOs’ Perspective at the WADA Symposium, on 21 March. WADA Code Compliance is an ongoing process by which all Anti-Doping Organisations must demonstrate the validity of their work to WADA. As standards are updated, continued compliance must be shown. For example, on November 2017, WADA adopted amendments to the 2015 WADA Code related to compliance, notably introducing a new International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories (ISCCS) which takes effect on 1 April 2018 . President Ajan added: “The IWF continues to enjoy a good working relationship with WADA and is grateful for the support WADA has provided. We will continue to work closely with WADA as we implement the measures agreed with the IOC and other partners that prove our continued commitment to the clean athletes of our sport.” IWF was also represented at the WADA Symposium by Attila Adamfi, Director General, dr. Patrick Schamasch, Anti-Doping Commission Chairman, Lilla Rozgonyi, Communications and Marketing Director, Dr. Lilla Sagi, Junior Legal Counsel and Melody Exhenry, Anti-Doping

The official documents of the 2018 IWF Junior World Championships are available

The Regulations and all forms for the 2018 IWF Junior World Championships were uploaded and can be downloaded here. The Championships will take place in the capital city of Uzbekistan, Tashkent from 6th to 14th of