Bahrain’s Gor Minasyan set a new Asian record yesterday en route to winning the kingdom’s second gold medal in as many days on the final day of the Asian Weightlifting Championships at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Super-heavyweight Minasyan, 27, set a new Asian snatch record with his second attempt when he lifted 205kg, bettering the previous mark of 204kg, to win his first major title.
A few minutes later, Armenia-born Minasyan, who became a Bahraini citizen last July, improved upon his own freshly-created record, when he lifted 210kg – 15kg clear of his nearest rival, Iran’s Ali Davoudi, who managed to lift only 195kg.
But Minasyan wasn’t done for the day.
He created another Asian record for the highest winning total later when he came in second in the clean-and-jerk with a lift of 242kg, just behind Davoudi’s attempt of 243kg. Minasyan’s total of 210-242-452 was comfortably ahead of the Iranian’s total of 195-243-438 and a new continental mark.
His victory came just 24 hours after Lesman Paredes won Bahrain’s first gold medal in the tournament by triumphing in the 96kg division snatch competition on Saturday. Colombia-born Paredes, like Minasyan, also became a Bahraini citizen last July.
Minasyan, a former youth world record holder in the 94kg division, also won the bronze medal in the 2021 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
He also won a bronze medal at the 2015 World Weightlifting Championshps and bagged silver medals at the 2016 European Weightlifting Championships, 2017 European Weightlifting Championships, 2018 World Weightlifting Championships and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Yesterday’s triumph, however, was easily the biggest win of Minasyan’s career.
His victory was even more significant because Minasyan, at 150kg, weighed in 26kg lighter than Davoudi.
Meanwhile, Mohsen Dadrasasi, Davoudi’s Iranian team-mate, took the bronze medal, with a total of 190-217-407.
And, as the curtain dropped on the 10-day event, which was hosted by the kingdom for the first time, Bahrain’s impeccable organisation of the tournament received high praise from participating teams and visitors, as well as officials from the IWF and the Asian Weightlifting Federation (AWF).
Supervised by the AWF, the competition was organised by the Bahrain Weightlifting Federation 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.