Men`s 94kg: Just two years ago nobody had heard of a 16-year old weightlifter from Kazakhstan, Ilya Ilin. In 2005, however, he entered the ranks of top champions in the nick of a time. He first captured the junior titles in Busan then added the senior gold medals to that in Doha. He was also elected [...]

Among the 23 entries of the women`s 75kg category, as many as two Russian big shots ? 4-times junior world champion Nadezhda Evstyukhina and Olympic bronze-medal winner, world champion Zarema Kasaeva teamed up to block the victory of Chinese newcomer Cao Lei. By the end of the first half of the competition, their plot seemed [...]

Men`s 85kg: Andrei Rybakou of Belarus had long wanted to win gold overall but he managed to collect titles only in snatch so far. On this lift he had been the best of the world for several years, yet he was not able to add the titles in jerk and total. Finally, in Santo Domingo [...]

Women`s 69kg: Major surprise in this category of 26 entries. We had never seen this before: Liu Chunhong of China could not step on the top of the podium of medals. the Olympic and 5-time senior world champion was defeated by Russian Oxana Slivenko, a first-time participant in the senior worlds field. Alone the fact that [...]

Women`s 63kg: It was Quyang Xiaofang`s duty to continue the streak of Chinese victories in the women`s 63kg (29 competitors) - and she duly delivered. All the three gold medals, in snatch, clean and jerk and total went to Quyang and not to Russia`s gold-medal favourite Svetlana Shimkova. This outcome, however, was not to be foreseen [...]

Women`s 58kg:  The category fielding 30 competitors featured the first encounter between a Russian and a Chinese favourite. In the first part Russian Svetlana Tsarukaeva defeated her Chinese opponent by 1 kg, but Qiu Hongmei took back the lead in clean and jerk, sweeping in the total gold medal. Meanwhile, Wandee Kameaim of Thailand became [...]

Men`s 77kg: In the category counting 51 participants we saw the first ever facedown between the Olympic champion, 21-year old Turkish Taner Sagir and the defending world champion Chinese . Sagir had first become an Olympic champion in Athens 2004, before eventually capturing his first world title in Santo Domingo. In the snatch, Li Hongli [...]

Women`s 53kg: In this category (29 entries) another Chinese debutante Qiu Hongxia swept with new world records. Although new to the world championships, the Chinese woman scored a devastating victory (16kg) over a more well-known figure of the sport: Raema Lisa Rumbewas from Indonesia. One of the local favourites, Yuderqi Contreras ? former bronze medal [...]

Women`s 48kg: In the opening category of the ladies 21 competitors were lined up. The Chinese new entry Yang Lian put down her visit card with fantastic results. Born in 1982, Yang collected all the three gold medals setting four world records: in snatch with 98kg, in clean and jerk with 119kg, and in total [...]

The 75th Men`s and 18th Women`s World Championships are going on in Santo Domingo. Impressive fields are fighting exciting battles for the medals and their countries`Olympic places. Men’s 56kg: Two Chinese were at the start among the 32 competitors and they were expected to gain a few medals. Surprisingly, however, only one of the Chinese [...]

An impressively large field of 569 competitors from 79 countries will compete in the first Qualification event for the 2008 Olympic Games, i.e. the 2006 World Championships of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 44 nations are represented in the women`s categories by 203 athletes, and 366 male competitors are expected to come from 73 nations. The [...]

Two new nations were affiliated to the International Federation at its Annual Congress on 29 September 2006: Northern Ireland and Turks and Caicos. The IWF now counts a membership of 178 nations.