Weightlifting World Championships:
Nasiri impresses with two silvers in men’s 110kg
Iranian weightlifter Alireza Nasiri recovered from a slow start to his campaign to collect two impressive silver medals in the men’s 110kg division at the IWF World Championships in Ningbo, China, on Friday.
The two-time world junior champion, who will turn 21 next month, failed to lift 180kg on his first attempt but bounced back to clear 181kg and 185kg on his next efforts, ultimately finishing sixth in the snatch.
Uzbek sensation Akbar Djuraev claimed snatch gold, setting a new world record of 198kg in the process, while Romania’s Luis Lauret and Chen Po-jen of Chinese Taipei posted 194kg and 191kg to take silver and bronze, respectively.
Nasiri then delivered a much-improved performance in his favorite clean and jerk event, opening with a successful 226kg lift before clearing 233kg on his second attempt. However, a failed 235kg effort saw the Iranian settle for silver behind Djuraev, who edged Nasiri by one kilogram. Turkmenistan’s Şahzadbek Matýakubow took bronze with 230kg.
Nasiri claimed his second silver of the day with a total of 418kg, replicating his two-medal haul from the previous edition of the World Championships in Forde, Norway.
Djuraev secured a clean sweep of gold medals with a world-record total of 432kg, claiming his fourth world title in six editions and finishing 27kg ahead of Chinese Olympic champion Liu Huanhua in the first qualification event for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Liu, who beat Djuraev to gold at Paris 2024, is now left with plenty to ponder ahead of the remaining nine Olympic qualifying events after finishing a disappointing sixth on home soil.
Matýakubow, meanwhile, claimed his second bronze medal with a total of 417kg to complete an all-Asian podium in the division.
Nasiri’s compatriot Alireza Moeini, who won snatch gold and total silver in the 94kg category last year, had to settle for 12th place on his debut at 110kg, posting a combined total of 388kg after lifting 180kg in the snatch and 208kg in the clean and jerk in Group B earlier in the day.
Nasiri’s medals took the Iranian six-man squad’s tally to five, following Ali A’alipour’s triple-bronze performance in the 95kg division on Wednesday, where he posted a total of 396kg with lifts of 181kg in the snatch and 215kg in the clean and jerk.
“Alireza truly deserved the two silver medals. Both lifters put in tremendous effort to win their medals,” Iran head coach Behdad Salimi said after the conclusion of the 110kg event.
“To win any medal, they had to lift weights close to world records. Even in the 95kg category, upgrading a medal would have required breaking a world record. The competition was extremely tough, and the contenders were of a very high standard, but our lifters genuinely performed well,” the former world and Olympic superheavyweight champion said of the two Iranians, who entered the competition following the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan in late September. A’alipour won gold at the Games, while Nasiri finished fourth, missing out on the podium.
“Our plan was to ensure they reached peak condition for the Asian Games, so it was natural that they would not be in the same shape at this competition. Nevertheless, the results they achieved in such a high-level event were very good,” Salimi added.
Salimi also praised Moeini for his performance in Group B, describing the competition as particularly demanding. He noted that a lifter from Chinese Taipei had advanced from that group to the A session in the snatch and gone on to win a medal, while the presence of an Olympic champion had further raised the standard.
“Winning a medal in such a competitive field is really difficult. Thank God, we came through with our heads held high and did not disappoint,” he said.
Mir-Mostafa Javadi and Abdollah Beiranvand were the first Iranians to take to the platform in Ningbo, finishing empty-handed in the men’s 85kg division last Monday.
Beiranvand finished ninth with a total of 363kg (170kg in the snatch and 193kg in the clean and jerk), while former world champion Javadi placed 13th with 360kg (160kg and 200kg, respectively).
Addressing their performances, Salimi said a recurring back injury had hampered Javadi.
“Mostafa’s old back injury partially resurfaced after the Asian Games and, unfortunately, bothered him during this competition, affecting his performance,” Salimi said.
As for Beiranvand, Salimi said he had hoped the lifter would win a medal in the snatch but acknowledged the exceptionally strong field.
“We were hoping Abdollah would win a medal in the snatch, but the competition in that section was extremely tough, with several lifters breaking world records multiple times. I feel that missing out on a snatch medal affected him mentally and emotionally, and he could not deliver his true performance,” he said.