WEIGHTLIFTING – Bahrain secured 11th place overall in the final juniors’ medal table at the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships 2026, held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The kingdom’s national team, which featured two junior lifters in 18-year-olds Jhon Lopez and Adrian Granja, bagged three medals in the competition – all by Lopez in the junior men’s 110kg category.
Lopez secured two silver medals for snatch and total while also capturing bronze in clean and jerk.
His medal haul earned the Bahrainis their place just outside of the top 10 on the juniors’ medal standings.
They were also second amongst Arab nations, finishing only behind Syria, who bagged a single gold medal.
Iran claimed the top spot with 13 gold medals, seven silver, and nine bronze; Uzbekistan followed in second with seven gold, 10 silver, and six bronze medals; and Kazakhstan finished in third place with seven gold medals, nine silver, and nine bronze.
Completing the top 10 from fourth through 10th, respectively, were the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Syria, and Turkmenistan.
Aside from Lopez and Granja, Bahrain also competed in the Uzbek capital with one youth lifter in 15-year-old Zainab Mahmood.
Both Granja and Zainab narrowly missed out on the podium in their respective classes, with Granja placing fourth in the junior men’s 85kg category and Zainab taking fourth in the youth women’s 49kg division.
Spearheading Bahrain’s delegation in Tashkent were Bahrain Olympic Committee board member and Bahrain Weightlifting Federation (BWF) president Eshaq Ebrahim Eshaq, BWF board member and BWF secretary general Tariq Al Bastaki, and Bahrain’s world-renowned weightlifting coach Aymer Orozco.
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