Weightlifting IWF Grand Prix II 2023 Road to Paris 2024

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Grand Prix II ( Doha)

 

men's -81kg

Gold:  Karlos May Nasar (393kg Total)

Silver:  Yeison Lopez Lopez (391kg Total)

Bronze:  Antonino Pizzolato (380kg Total)

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Two athletes still young enough to compete as juniors made day seven of the IWF Grand Prix in Doha the most exciting day yet.

 

In the women’s 71kg, the 20-year-old Olivia Reeves set seven junior world records in 5 lifts to enhance her ranking position.

 

 Song Kuk Hyang finished 1st ahead of the Olympic rankings leader  Liao Guifang, but the most exciting contest was a head-to-head between Reeves and the Olympic 76kg silver medallist Kate Vibert, who finished 3rd and 4th.

 

Despite dropping down to 71kg and making a career-high total that exceeded her Olympic performance by 5kg, Vibert finds herself in a worse position in the rankings because of Reeves’ run of success.

 

Nations can send only athlete per weight category and  now has two in the top 4 on the extended list after Reeves made 115-147-262kg, setting junior world records across the board, and Vibert finished 112-142-254kg.

 

Song failed with a world record attempt on her last lift.

 

She made 120-149-269 while Liao finished 116-148-264, which is 9kg below her best qualifying total.

 

Others who made big gains in the rankings were  Vanessa Sarno, up 10kg to 249kg (from 9th to 5th useful place in the OQR), and Olympic bronze medallist  Chen Wen-Huei, up 8kg to 243kg (sneakin' in into the top 10, 8th useful place in the OQR now, climbing from previous 12th).

 

 Mun Minhee made a 7kg gain in the B group, finishing 1kg behind  Eyglo Sturlodottir, who made 104-127-231kg to move within striking distance of the top ten of the OQR (still she has almost 10 lifters yet to pass).

 

the unlucky lifter of the day is  Amanda Da Costa Schott, who dropped momentarily out of the top 10 of the OQR.

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In the men's -89kg class, a final C&J lift of 223kg gave  Karlos Nasar victory with a Total of 393kg, despite being down in 6th place in snatch (170kg), and put him in the record books yet again.

 

By surpassing both his own junior mark and  Tian Tao’s senior world record in C&J he took his tally of world records at youth, junior and senior level to 30 since April 2021.

 

 Yeison Lopez Lopez, who has competed at 96kg after serving a doping suspension last year, made a six-from-six 180-210-390kg for 2nd place.

 

He overtakes team-mate Brayan Rodallegas in the extended rankings and now he's 3rd behind  Li Dayin from China, who withdrew here, and Nasar.

 

Olympic Bronze medallist (behind 2 convicted dopers )  Antonino Pizzolato is one of the 3 lifters who made huge moves in the rankings.

 

On his return from a back injury that stopped him lifting in 3 qualifiers, Pizzolato made four good lifts for 170-210-380kg.

 

That gave him 3rd place in Doha and 6th useful place in the OQR.

 

The 3rd big move was by  Boady Santavy, who had his elbow reconstructed ten months ago and lifted at 96kg on his return at the World Championships in Saudi Arabia two months ago.

 

Santavy, 26, made 172-100-372kg for snatch silver, 6th place on Total and 9th place in the OQR.

 

This was his 1st career competition at 89kg.

 

 Keydomar Vallenilla, 3rd in snatch behind Lopez Lopez and Santavy, missed his last two C&J efforts and finished 5th on 171-207-378kg, one place behind the  Ro Kwang Yol, who took C&J silver on 168-211-379kg.

 

 Marin Robu dropped out of the top ten in the OQR after he bombed out in snatch in the B Group.

 

Two members of the IWF executive board were involved in an intriguing multi-national tussle lower down the rankings, where things get complicated for athletes chasing the one continental slot for Paris 2024.

 

Forrester Osei, chair of the IWF Athletes Commission who lifts for and  Kyle Bruce.

 

It started well for Osei with a 145kg C&J but was followed by 5 no-lifts, leaving him with a lot to do.

 

Osei, who was born in London, raised in Ghana and now works as a strength and conditioning coach in Qatar, will need to improve his best total by about 25kg by the end of qualifying in April.

 

Osei and others in contention from will also need an ranked in the top ten, Karim Abokahla, to move up to 102kg for Paris, which he may do.

 

If he does, the 89kg continental place will be open to athletes from Africa or Oceania, rather than Oceania only.

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just to underline the "newcomer"  Lopez's career

 

2021: 353kg Total in the -89kg at the Jr. Pan-Am Champs, then he got caught for doping

 

2023: back from suspension, 371kg Total at the World Champs in the -96kg 3 months ago

 

Yesterday: 391kg Total in the -89kg class (destroying the field with 180kg in the Snatch)

 

is it me or this guy is not trustable at all? less than any other lifter, I mean (and you know what I mean) 

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NON-Olympic action Today in Doha

 

in the men's -96kg class, the Gold medal went surprisingly to  Shahzadbek Matyakubov with a Total of 371kg (modest result, tbh), who just edged out by 1 kilo  Davit Hovannisyan.

 

Bronze went to  Yang Tae Bong with a Total of 364kg.

 

In the women's -76kg class,  dominated the competition, as often happens when no lifter from  is competing.

 

Jong Chun Hui recorded 115-135-250kg and easily got the Gold medal.

 

 Gintare Brazaite (100-125-225kg) won Silver ahead of  Alexia Gonzalez (93-114-207kg).

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Grand Prix II ( Doha)

 

women's -81kg

Gold:  Liang Xiaomei (284kg Total)

Silver:  Wang Zhouyu (268kg Total)

Bronze:  Eileen Floanna Maria Chikamatana (261kg Total)

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Grand Prix II ( Doha)

 

men's -102kg

Gold:  Fares Ibrahim Elbakh (400kg Total)

Silver:  Liu Huanhua (398kg Total)

Bronze:  Garik Karapetyan (391kg Total)

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"Nemo profeta in Patria" people used to say in the ancient times...

 

but sometimes that's not exactly true.

 

Earlier Today, in fact, local hero  Fares Elbakh triumphed in the men's -102kg class with a very solid performance, lifting 400kg in Total (176-224-400kg his final line) and defeating the reigning world champion,  Liu Huanhua, who only lifted 398kg in Total (176-222-398kg his line), compared to the 404kg he lifted last September at the World Championships.

 

The Bronze medal went to the 2023 European champion  Garik Karapetyan, who lifted 180-211-391kg.

 

In terms of OQR, Elbakh moves up to the 2nd place overall (from 6th), meanwhile the real winner of Today's event is  Tudor Bratu, who was 4th with a Total of 390kg (175-215-390kg) and jumped from nowhere straight into the 9th useful position.

 

The unlucky lifter of the day, instead, is  Brian Wesley Kitts, who momentarily drops from 10th to 11th place in the OQR, the first man under the qualification line.

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in the women's -81kg class, the only remarkable score came from the eventual winner,  Liang Xiaomei, who consolidated her position at the top of the OQR thanks to her Total of 284kg, increasing her margin over the strongest contender, her teammate Wang Zhouyu (who got Today's Silver).

 

Today's Bronze medal winner,  Eileen Chikamatana, improved her score in the OQR by 1 kilo (up to 261kg), but kept her position (7th overall, 5th "useful").

 

Unfortunately, no other remarkable lift was recorded Today, therefore there are no further changes at the top positions of the OQR.

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NON-Olympic action in the forelast day of the Grand Prix II in Doha

 

and man, Today's events were really modest.

 

in the women's -87kg class,  Hripsime Khurshudyan won Gold with a 106-126-232kg line, which wouldn't have been enough for a medal in the -59kg class 

 

 Anamjan Rustamova won Silver lifting just 1 kilo less in Total than the Armenian, while a further kilo down the score of the girl from ,  Tatem Hakobyan earned Bronze.

 

obviously, no score is good enough to be taken into consideration for the OQR.

 

in the men's -109kg class,  Dadash Dadashbayli won Gold with a Total of 388kg.

 

But the biggest achievement of the day, though, was  Taniela Rainibogi’s show of strength in the men’s 109kg.

 

In making six-from-six for a huge career best of 170-210-380kg, Rainibogi became the first male lifter from to win a medal at a global competition.

 

There have been medals in Oceania and Commonwealth events, but none in a competition open to the world.

 

Rainibogi improved his best snatch by 5kg, C&J by 18kg and total by 23kg and finished 3rd behind Dadashbayli and  Bekdoolot Rasulbekov, who won C&J gold with a career-best lift of 219kg and Silver on Total with 381kg.

 

Also in this case, however, no score is even close to climb in the top 25 of the OQR.

 

Tomorrow the GP II ends with the Superheavyweights, both in the women and men's categories.