Snatch world record holder, Lesman Paredes gave Bahrain its first gold medal of the 2022 Asian Weightlifting Championships when he won the 96kg title at the Crowne Plaza Hotel yesterday.
Colombia-born Paredes, who became a Bahraini citizen last July, claimed victory with a career-best clean-and-jerk with his 397kg total putting him 24kkg ahead of second-placed Chen-Po Jen of Chinese Taipei. Kazakhstan’s Artyom Antropov came third in the competition.
Paredes, 26, who created a world record in the 2021 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Uzbekistan when he lifted 187kg in the snatch competition, completely dominated proceedings yesterday in his weight category and was the only competitor, out of eight, who did not fail with any of his attempts.
Impressive from the beginning, Paredes aced the snatch as expected and then returned to make three impeccable clean-and-jerks to effectively shut out his closest competitors.
The tournament, which is being held in Bahrain for the first time, concludes today with the last competitions being held over three sessions.
The morning session, which begins at 10am, will feature the 109kg men’s event followed by an 87kg competition for women, starting at 12.30pm. The last session will see the 109kg event for men where, again, Bahrain have medal hopes with Gor Minasyan, who won a bronze medal at last year’s world championships, one of the leading contenders.
Like Paredes, Armenia-born Minasyan became a Bahraini citizen last July.
Supervised by the Asian Weightlifting Federation (AWF), the Asian Weightlifting Championships has been organised by the Bahrain Weightlifting Federation (BRF) under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president, Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
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