Iran’s Soltani bags two Asian weightlifting golds, double bronzes for Javadi
The sixth day of the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Jinju, South Korea, saw Mir Mostafa Javadi claim a couple of bronze medals in the men’s 89kg class.
Javadi’s medals came a day after Hossein Soltani had opened the account for the country in the men’s event by grabbing three medals – including double golds.
On Wednesday, Javadi failed to stand on the podium in the snatch contest but lifted 205kg to finish third in the clean & jerk event and bagged his second bronze thanks to a 364kg tally in total.
Li Dayin stole the show by setting three new world records en route to a clean sweep of the 89kg golds.
Chinese weightlifter registered a 180kg snatch lift before recording 222kg in the C&J competition and 396kg in total.
Representing Iran in the 81kg weight class, Soltani had to settle for the silver medal in a tight snatch contest on Tuesday, where the top three were only separated by one kilogram in their best lifts.
Kazakhstan’s Yelaman Seitkazy won the gold with 155kg, with bronze winner Chuang Sheng-min of the Chinese Taipei equaling Soltani on 154kg.
An Asian junior gold medalist in 2018, Soltani then went on to top the clean & jerk event with 184kg before a total tally of 338kg gave the Iranian a second gold of the day.
Home favorite Park Hyeon-go took the clean & jerk silver with 181kg but stood third in total with 324kg – standing behind Chuang, who lifted 180kg for the C&J bronze and tallied 334kg in total.
Soltani’s compatriot Fatemeh Keshavarz had collected two bronzes on Monday to become only the second Iranian woman to win a weightlifting medal in the Asian Championships – following Hamideh Hosseini who won three golds last year in Manama, Bahrain.
Keshavarz finished fifth in the 64kg snatch event but overcame the 109kg weight in the clean & jerk contest, registering 194kg in total.
Iran’s main focus in Jinju is on the Olympic categories, including the 102kg class – in which the country will be represented by the Rio 2016 gold winner Sohrab Moradi.
Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Ali Davoudi has recovered from an injury but the event in South Korea came a bit too soon for the Iranian super-heavyweight as he will be back in action in next month’s IWF Grand Prix in Cuba.