WEIGHTLIFTING – SONG Kuk Hyang of North Korea and Nurgissa Adiletuly of Kazakhstan were crowned world champions last night in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships 2024, currently being hosted by the kingdom.
Song swept all three gold medals – including for snatch, clean and jerk, and total – en route to clinching the women’s 76kg A division crown, while Adiletuly secured the gold for total in the men’s 96kg A group to claim his world title by a single kg.
Song’s triumph earned North Korea their ninth world championship in the kingdom, while Adiletuly became the first Kazakh to emerge triumphant this year.
Yesterday’s action marked the seventh day of action in this year’s 10-day worlds, which are being held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad’s representative for humanitarian work and youth affairs and Supreme Council for Youth and Sport chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
The competition features nearly 500 of the world’s best lifters, both men and women, flying the flags of more than 90 countries from around the world.
In last night’s women’s 76kg A contest, Song kicked off her medal bid with a best lift of 116kg in the snatch for her first gold medal. She then followed it up with a 148kg clean and jerk, which gave her a 264kg total in a dominant showing.
She lifted 16kg more than Colombia’s Miyareth Mendoza Carabali, who swept the silver medals with a 111kg snatch and a 137kg clean and jerk, to end with a 248kg total.
Nigeria’s Sarah O Matthew took the bronze medal for total and snatch, becoming one of only a handful of lifters from a weight-class’ B group in Bahrain to step onto the podium. Matthew had a 245kg total and a 110kg snatch, but narrowly missed out on a clean and jerk medal after placing fourth with a 135kg effort.
Ecuador’s Bella Nancy Paredes Arreaga also took home a medal from yesterday’s events, winning bronze in the clean and jerk with a 136kg effort.
On the distaff, Adiletuly led three different lifters who each came away with gold in a tightly contested men’s 96kg A division – with only one kg separating the top three on totals.
Adiletuly’s aggregate of 388kg earned him his world title, while he also took a silver for a clean and jerk lift of 214kg. Adiletuly had a 174kg snatch but it was only good enough for fourth.
Revaz Davitadze of Georgia was the silver-medallist and Ali Alipour of Iran took bronze, both with 387kg totals.
Davitadze bagged the snatch gold with a 177kg lift, while Alireza Moeini Sedeh of Iran took the silver at 176kg. Qian Feixiang of China, a B division competitor in the weight class, captured bronze with a best mark of 175kg.
Won Jongbeom of South Korea clinched the clean and jerk gold at 214kg, followed by Adiletuly and Alipour, both of whom also had 214kg lifts but one attempt after.
Only three days remain in this year’s world championships. Today’s action will feature five classes, headlined by the women’s 81kg A at 5.30pm and the men’s 102kg A at 8pm. Beforehand, the men’s 109kg C category will hit the platform at 10am, followed by the women’s 81kg B group at 12.30pm and the men’s 102kg B division at 2.30pm.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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