Soltani eyeing glory on world stage
Young Iranian weightlifter Hossein Soltani will bid for a podium finish when the men’s 81kg Group A contests get underway at the IWF World Championships in Riyadh today.
Soltani, 23, will be looking to build on a glittering campaign in May’s Asian Championships, where he captured the total and clean & jerk golds plus a snatch silver in Jinju, South Korea. The Iranian heads into the event with a second-best entry record of 358kg – two kilograms shy of the tally registered by Italian Oscar Reyes.
Kazakhstan’s Yelaman Seitkazy, who beat Soltani to the snatch gold in Jinju, Bulgarian Bozhidar Andreev – a winner of three world -73kg medals in 2019 – as well as Uzbekistan’s Mukhammadkodir Toshtemirov – a triple world junior gold medalist in 2021 – will also be in the mix for glory in the Saudi capital.