WEIGHTLIFTING – RUSLAN Nurudinov of Uzbekistan set a new world record en route to being crowned world champion last night along with Wu Yan of China, on the ninth and penultimate day of action in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships 2024, currently taking place in the kingdom.
Nurudinov won the third world title of his illustrious career. He was competing yesterday in the men’s 109kg A category, where he also set a new world mark and claimed two of the three gold medals. Wu, on the other hand, registered a clean sweep of the three golds – including for snatch, clean and jerk, and total – in the women’s 87kg A competition.
The stage is now set for the concluding day of action in this year’s worlds, which are being held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad’s humanitarian work and youth affairs representative and Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Nearly 500 of the world’s best lifters, both men and women, have been putting on a fantastic show in the kingdom over the past week-and-a-half, flying the flags of more than 90 countries from around the world.
All are welcome to attend the last day. Entrance is completely free of charge although fans will need to book tickets on boc.bh/iwf.
In last night’s men’s 109kg A group, Nurudinov missed out on a medal in the snatch with a 182kg effort, but his massive, world record lift of 242kg in the clean and jerk – which was a whopping 21kg more than the rest of the field – earned him his total of 424kg. His clean and jerk mark was one kg better than the previous world record of 241kg, which Nurudinov also held.
Winning silver on totals was Dadash Dadashbayli of Azerbaijan at 404kg, while Mehdi Karami of Iran came away with bronze with a 400kg total.
Taking snatch gold was Sharofiddin Amriddinov of Uzbekistan with a 184kg best, while Garik Karapetyan of Armenia won the silver and Karami bronze, both with 183kg lifts. Joining Nurudinov on the clean and jerk podium were Dadashbayli with a 221kg lift for silver and Salwan Jasim Abbood Alaifuri of Iraq with a 220kg effort for bronze.
Meanwhile, in the women’s 87kg A events, Wu took gold in snatch with a 122kg lift. She rode her momentum into the clean and jerk, where she had a 150kg best, giving her a title-winning 272kg total – 15kg more than silver-medallist Eileen Cikamatana of Australia. Kim Yong Ju of North Korea won the bronze for total with a 256kg aggregate.
Winning the snatch silver medal was Madias Dodo Ngake of Great Britain with a 114kg effort while Cikamatana took bronze at 113kg. Cikamatana added a third medal – a silver for clean and jerk – with her 144kg effort. Yong captured the clean and jerk bronze, also with a 144kg lift, which came on her third and final attempt.
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