IWF World Junior Championships:
Iran steals the show in heavyweight, beats the odds to defend men’s title
Iranian weightlifters dominated the final day of the IWF World Junior Championships in Ismailia, Egypt, sweeping the gold and silver medals across the two heavyweight categories, as the country celebrated back-to-back men’s title at the showpiece.
A haul of six golds, seven silvers, and one bronze medal saw the Iranian eight-man squad stand atop the team table with 520 points – a tremendous achievement that came against the backdrop of the complications the team had struggled with in the buildup to the event.
While the team’s preparation had been massively hampered by the wartime situation in the country, the Iranian weightlifters – coached by former world and Olympic champion Sohrab Moradi – only arrived in Ismailia on Tuesday after a visa delay had threatened to derail their title defense.
Hamidreza Mohammadi-Tanha capped off Iran’s emphatic run on the final day by completing a clean sweep of three golds in the +110kg weight class.
Stepping onto the platform as the favorite to emulate his triple-gold winning campaign of last year in Lima, Mohammadi-Tanha delivered a six-from-six 180-221-401 performance to finish above his compatriot Taha Nemati, who settled for three silvers for a second straight year with 172-220-392.
Turkish weightlifter Selahattin Altın finished third in the snatch with a 170kg lift, with Uzbekistan’s Omadillo Olimov bagging the other two bronzes on 219-388.
It was also an Iranian one-two in the 110kg division earlier in the day, with Abolfazl Zare’ hitting the 400kg mark in total for three gold medals.
Zare, who had collected three medals – including the total silver – in the 102kg class in Lima, made five successful lifts for 180-220-400, ahead of his teammate Farhad Qolizadeh, who registered 179-208-387 to take his personal tally to five medals following last year’s C&J and total silvers.
Zare’ jumped 11kg for his final attempt despite having won already. “He has done 185-226 in training,” Sajjad Anoushiravani, president of the Iranian Weightlifting Federation, said of the 19-year-old’s performance.
“We are very strong at 110kg. We have four athletes all trying to qualify for the Olympic Games,” added the former Olympic superheavyweight silver medalist, referring to Friday’s medalists plus Amirhossein Sepah and Alireza Nasiri, all aged 19 or 20.
Nasiri won last year – his second junior world title – and set junior world records of 231kg in clean and jerk and 414kg on total at the Senior World Championships in Forde, Norway, last October. He will lift at the Asian Championships in India next weekend.
Italy’s Simone Abati secured the snatch and total bronzes in 110kg with 173-373, with China’s Wang Guizhou, who bombed out in snatch, missing his first two clean and jerks before making the last effort on 207kg for a bronze medal.
Iran’s ‘big four’ collectively weighed 528kg and lifted 1,580kg – slightly up on last year in body weight and kilos lifted.
Friday’s feat came after Hamidreza Zarei had opened Iran’s account in Ismailia by collecting a silver and a bronze medal in the men’s 94kg event on the penultimate day of the competition.
The Iranian registered three successful lifts in the snatch but was unlucky to miss out on the podium – finishing fourth with 162kg – before a much-improved performance in the clean & jerk saw him secure silver with a 204kg effort.
Zarei’s 366kg tally earned him the total bronze– the third world junior medal of the Iranian’s career, after the 96kg clean & jerk gold he won in Lima.
Mohammad-Amin Habibi was the other Iranian in the 94kg class, finishing sixth in both snatch and C&J categories with 161kg and 187kg respectively, before placing fifth in the total standings.
Amir-Mohammad Rahmati and Mohammad-Amin Dadvand were the first Iranians on the platform in Ismailia, competing in the men’s 88kg division on Wednesday. Rahmati stood seventh in total with a 152-180-332 performance, while Dadvand crashed out after three failed attempts in clean & jerk.
“The long journey and lack of rest affected our first two athletes but the others were fine and performed well,” added Anoushiravani, who Egyptian sports minister to thank, who, after prompting from the IWF president Mohammed Jalood, helped to clear the way for Iran’s late entry into the competition.
Egypt followed Iran in the men’s standings with 427 points, with Venezuela in third on 380.
In the overall medal table, which also featured the women’s competition, China dominated with an impressive 19 gold medals, with Iran and Venezuela, which bagged five golds, in the following spots, respectively.