IWF World Youth & Junior Championships:
Zarei grabs gold as Iranians win five medals on Day 4
The fourth day of the IWF World Youth & Junior Championships in Lima, Peru, saw Iranians collect five junior medals, including a clean & jerk gold through Hamidreza Zarei in the men’s 96kg contests.
Having missed out on a snatch medal, Zarei went on to lift 203kg for his second effort to beat Egyptian Ahmed Gamal Elbasyouni to the ultimate prize in the C&J event.
Zarei would have also won the total gold, had he made his final attempt on 209kg, but he failed and settled for the fourth place on a 158-203-361 record.
“I could have done much better in the snatch event but the barbell slipped through my hands on my third attempt. I had lifted 210kg and even 213kg in training, but unfortunately, I couldn’t repeat those feats today,” Zarei said.
Meanwhile, Zarei’s compatriot Amirhossein Sepah made sure Iran would finish the event with a total medal after he settled for the silver with 364kg – two kilograms shy of Elbasyouni’s overall tally.
Sepah began his campaign with a couple of failed attempts, but still managed to raise 165kg above his head for a snatch bronze behind Belarusian Ihnatsi Pauliukavets (167kg), who participated as a neutral athlete, and Elbasyouni (166kg).
Sepah then succeeded with his second C&J effort, lifting 199kg, to secure a second bronze medal in the Peruvian capital.
Illia Salehipour won a first medal for on Saturday, when he registered a 195kg lift to win the bronze in a tight clean & jerk contest in the men’s 89kg class, with Georgia’s Goga Jajvani (198kg) and Colombian David Cuesta Angel (196kg) winning the gold and silver, respectively.
Having stood fifth in the snatch table, Salehipour finished fourth in total with a 158-195-353 tally.
Amirmohammad Rahmati was the Iranian boy in the weight class, recording 154-184-338 to finish eighth in the total standings.
In the women’s competitions, Ghazaleh Hosseini had a 98-121-219 result to finish sixth in total in the 76kg division.
Saturday’s results came after Iranian girl Alma Hosseini had notched up first medals for the country in Lima on the preceding night, collecting a silver and a bronze in the women’s youth 64kg class.
Hosseini, 17, tallied 86kg to miss out on the snatch podium, finishing fourth behind Albanian Carja Enkileda (98kg), Nauru’s Crystie Notte Femliy (92kg) and Russian Valeriia Drevnovskaia (86kg), who participated as a neutral athlete.
The 17-year-old missed out on the snatch podium, but delivered a much-improved performance to win the C&J silver with 111kg, before taking the total bronze with 86-111-197.