IWF World Championships:
Iran finishes men’s third but work needs to be done for Paris
Iranian weightlifting men’s team tallied 458 points to finish on the third podium at the IWF World Championships in Riyadh.
Still, there was little to cheer about for the country through the 14-day event, as eight members of the 10-man squad left the Saudi capital empty-handed, indicating the massive scale of the task facing the Iranians at the Paris Olympics in less than 12 months.
Armenia won the men’s title with 522 points, with China in the runner-up spot on 492 points.
On Sunday, Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Ali Davoudi lifted a personal-high 249kg to take the clean & jerk bronze of the +109kg weight class, finishing fourth in total with 452kg.
Davoudi was desperately close to taking the C&J gold but failed with his final attempt at 255kg.
Double Olympic champion Lasha Talakhadze was clearly far from his best, mostly owing to a wrist problem, but still managed to bag a routine triple of golds for a sixth successive year.
The Georgian sensation made 220-253-473 ahead of Armenian Varazdat Lalayan on 212-248-460 and Bahrain’s Gor Minasyan on 213-246-459.
“The others are closing in on Lasha. The standard he showed today will not be enough anymore,” Georgian coach Giorgi Asanidze said.
“He was not at his very best here, but the only thing that mattered today was for him to be champion again. He will have to regain top form next time.”
Ayat Sharifi was the other Iranian in the superheavyweight class, though he bombed out after three failed attempts in the C&J event while struggling with a knee injury.
Davoudi’s bronze saw Iran end in the 10th place of the medal table.
Mirmostafa Javadi had stunned Chinese duo Li Dayin and Tian Tao to claim the C&J and total golds in the 89kg contests earlier in Riyadh.
China dominated the standings with a remarkable 33 medals – including 20 golds, with Thailand (9) and Egypt (7) in the following spots.