Asian Youth & Junior Weightlifting Championships:
Medals galore as Iran claims four team podiums
A prolific campaign at the Asian Youth & Junior Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, yielded 56 medals for Iran’s boys and girls, as the country secured four podium finishes, including two historic ones in the women’s competitions, in the team standings.
Farhad Qolizadeh capped the medal-laden campaign with a clean sweep of three golds, thanks to a 172kg snatch, 210kg clean & jerk and 382kg total in the men’s junior 110kg category on Friday.
Taha Nemati-Moqaddam added three medals in the +110kg category later in the day as Iran finished third in a tight men’s junior team race with 543 points, collecting nine golds, five silvers and three bronzes.
A triple-silver medalist at May’s World Junior Championships, Nemati settled for bronze in the snatch with 173kg before posting a best lift of 219kg in the clean & jerk to claim two more silver medals.
Kazakhstan was crowned men’s junior champions with 553 points, four clear of runners-up Uzbekistan.
Iran also finished third in the women’s junior competition – a best-ever result for the country in the history of the championships – collecting four golds, two silvers and six bronzes for 470 points. The host nation won the team title with 558 points, with Kazakhstan runners-up on 522.
Mahsa Beheshti spearheaded Iran’s medal haul, winning three golds in the women’s youth +77kg category on Thursday with a 113kg snatch, 148kg clean & jerk and 261kg total. The 17-year-old also struck gold in the junior 86kg category, completing a remarkable four-gold campaign.
Hasti Seddiqi was Iran’s other female gold medalist in the junior age group, topping the clean & jerk standings in the 69kg category with a best effort of 126kg.
Youth glory
Iran also enjoyed a highly successful campaign in the youth competitions, winning 15 golds, seven silvers and five bronzes to top the overall medal table while claiming two runner-up finishes in the team standings.
Represented by 15 lifters across the men’s and women’s divisions, Iran finished second in the combined team standings with 1,064 points – just three behind the host’s 16-member squad – while Kazakhstan took third place with 1,057 points.
Another historic campaign for the Iranian girls saw them finish with six golds, three silvers and three bronzes.
Apart from Beheshti, Anahita Zarei and Nasim Qassemi accounted for Iran’s other three gold medals in the youth women’s competition, winning six medals between them in the 77kg category.
Zarei settled for bronze in the snatch but went on to win gold in the clean & jerk and total with lifts of 126kg and 218kg, respectively.
Qassemi claimed snatch gold with a successful 91kg lift before finishing runner-up to her compatriot in the clean & jerk and total with 117kg and 208kg, respectively.
In the men’s division, meanwhile, Iran won nine golds, four silvers and two bronzes – the country’s best medal haul in the tournament – but had to settle for second place in the team standings with 530 points, 23 behind the host nation. Kazakhstan finished third with 506 points.
Mohammad-Javad Beiranvand was in a league of his own in the 75kg category, collecting a remarkable nine gold medals, including three in the Central Asian category, across the two age groups.
The Iranian lifted 145kg in the snatch to set a new world youth record and was equally impressive in the clean & jerk, successfully lifting 180kg in his second attempt to set new Asian and world records in the clean & jerk and total.
Beiranvand capped his campaign with a 325kg total to add three more gold medals to his individual haul in Tashkent, underlining his status as one of Iran’s most promising young weightlifters.
Iran’s Taha Nojavan delivered further record-breaking performances, sweeping the gold medals in the youth +95kg category.
Nojavan shattered Asian and world youth records with a 176kg snatch before dominating the clean & jerk with a successful 215kg lift, which was also a new world youth record. Iran accounted for 16 of the 33 world and continental records broken during eight days of competition in the Uzbek capital.