Asian Weightlifting Championships:
Iran wins men’s title but more work needs to be done to succeed in Paris
A total of 635 points was enough for Iran to beat Uzbekistan to the men’s crown – ending a six-year title drought – at the Asian Weightlifting Championships.
However, a more in-depth look into the team’s results in Jinju, South Korea, offers a tough job on the Iranian federation’s hands ahead of next year’s Paris Olympics.
Despite a top-spot finish in the team ranking, Iran had to settle for the 10th place in the medal table with eight medals – two of which were Fatemeh Keshavarz’s bronzes in the women’s contests.
China dominated with a remarkable 43 medals in men’s and women’s competitions – including 26 golds – followed by South Korea, which won 26 (six golds), and Thailand (15 medals, five golds).
Of the 10 men representing Iran in Jinju, only Hossein Soltani managed to walk away with the ultimate prizes of his respective weight class.
Soltani bagged the clean & jerk and total golds, as well as the snatch silver, of the 81kg contests – accounting for half of the medals the whole men’s team collected at the event.
Soltani was one of only two Iranians to win a total medal, alongside Mir-Mostafa Javadi, who took the C&J and total bronzes in the 89kg contests.
Iranians’ results in the Olympic weight categories were far more concerning, as veteran duo Kianoush Rostami (89kg) and Sohrab Moradi (102kg) – gold medalists at the 2016 Rio Games – left the event empty-handed and will be facing a daunting task to book their tickets for Paris.
With the tournament coming a bit too soon for Ali Davoudi – who has recently recovered from an injury – Ayat Sharifi and Alireza Yousefi failed to impress when filling in for the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, as the two finished second to Bahrain’s Gor Minasyan in the snatch and C&J contests of the super-heavyweight class respectively.