IWF World Championships:
Chinese favorites stunned as Javadi bags sensational golds
Mir-Mostafa Javadi got Iran off the mark in the medal table at the IWF World Championships by collecting a couple of surprise golds in Riyadh.
On a day to forget for Chinese world record holders Li Dayin and Tian Tao, Javadi bounced back from a slow start in the snatch contest to walk away with the ultimate prizes of the clean & jerk and total events in the men’s 89kg class – a massive boost for the Iranian in sealing a berth for next year’s Paris Olympics.
A double world silver winner in 2021, Javadi registered 169kg to settle for the sixth spot in the snatch event, with Armenian Andranik Karapetyan (175kg), Moldavia’s Marin Robu (173kg), and Keydomar Vallenilla (171kg) finishing on the podiums.
Li and Tian Tao only had two successful lifts between them to end in the fourth and seventh places respectively.
It was a different story in the C&J campaign for Javadi, who began with a successful 207kg attempt.
Asked later if he fancied his chances of winning double golds, the Iranian said: “Absolutely not.
“I was just trying my best for a bronze medal, maybe a silver, and never even thought about gold. But there were so many no-lifts.”
While Tian Tao bombed out with successive failed attempts, Li thought he had done enough for the remaining golds when he took the lead on 170-213-383.
However, having overcome the 212kg barrier, Javadi went on to lift 215kg for his final attempt to finish atop the C&J podium before grabbing the total gold with 384kg.
Li took double silvers, with Venezuelan Vallenilla making a clean sweep of bronzes.
“That was my best lifting in a competition,” said Javadi, whose total will move him up to fourth in the Olympic rankings.
His overall tally is four kilograms better than his fellow Iranian and 2016 Olympic champion Kianoush Rostami, who made 380kg at last year’s World Championships before being dropped from the national team for the tournament in the Saudi capital.
This was only a second appearance in the new weight class for the Iranian, following May’s Asian Championships, where he tallied 364kg in total to take double bronzes, with Li and Tian Tao setting three new world records for the golds.
“It was the result of months of hard work,” Javadi, 23, said in perfect English “learned from movies and TV.”
He celebrated on the platform with Iran’s large coaching staff, adding: “This was a team effort. Hopefully there will be more medals to come.”
Javadi had also participated in Bogotá last year but he was far from fitness after a back injury and failed to make the podium.
He had to take his form to a new level in an intense preparation for this year’s championships, Sajjad Anoushiravani, the head of the Iranian Weightlifting Federation, explained.
“After the Asian Championships there was no day off,” said Anoushiravani, and Olympic medalist in 2012.
“We have been in training camps since then, with good nutrition, good coaching, very professional, very progressive.
“Hopefully we will win more medals here.”