IWF World Junior Championships:
Yousefi dominates superheavyweight as Iran wins men’s crown
Iranian weightlifter Alireza Yousefi made a clean sweep of three superheavyweight gold medals to steer the country to the men’s title at the IWF World Junior Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Iranian 10-man squad collected five golds, nine silvers, and a single bronze to tally 660 points for a fifth crown in 12 years – first since 2018.
Taha Ne’mati Moqaddam walked away with three silver medals to complete a dominant one-two for Iran in the +109kg contests, while the 17-year-old’s 176kg lift shattered the world youth record in the snatch category of the weight class.
A two-time Asian youth champion, Ne’mati added 21kg to his personal best total in making 176-205-381 despite failing with two clean and jerk attempts.
Yousefi, meanwhile, proved to be in a league of his own in the junior superheavyweight class by yet another 400kg-plus performance in securing a triple-gold winning campaign in the competitions for a second year running.
Making his final appearance as a junior weightlifter, the Iranian, a Youth Olympic Games champion in 2018, withdrew from his third snatch attempt but the 180-240-420 display was still enough to see Yousefi write his name into the history books of the sport in the country.
Yousefi became the third Iranian to claim back-to-back world golds in the age category – following Kianoush Rostami (2010 and 2011) and Saeed Mohammadpour (2011 and 2012).
Had Yousefi not missed his second C&J lift, the 20-year-old would have had a shot at his own world record of 246kg, which he established during a career-best performance (190-246-436) in May’s senior Asian Championships in South Korea, where he finished fifth.
Yousefi stepped into the event in Mexico with six world records in junior and youth age classes under his belt, until his fellow Iranian took one away on Thursday.
Slovakian Vladimir Macura grabbed the snatch and total bronzes with 168kg and 359kg, while a successful 192kg lift saw Polish contestant Igor Osuch settle for the third podium in the C&J contest.
Thursday’s results took Iran’s medal haul in the final three days to two golds and three silvers on total, moving Hadi Panzvan’s squad up to fourth in the medals table behind the United States, Mexico and Armenia.
Alireza Nasiri got Iran off the mark in Guadalajara when he finished third in the snatch contests with a 166kg lift before grabbing the C&J (205kg) and total (371kg) golds in the men’s 96kg showdown.
Abolfazl Zare’ added three silvers to Iran’s medal count, registering 166-199-365 to stand on the runner-up podiums – behind Armenian Garik Karapetyan (175-203-378) – in the 102kg class.
The 109kg event also yielded three silver medals for Iran, courtesy of Arya Paydar, who finished on 168-205-373.