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Lidia Valentin recieved her Olympic gold medal

On 1 March Lidia Valentin received her well deserved Olympic gold medal at the Spanish Olympic Committee in Madrid. The Spanish superstar originally finished in fourth place at the 2012 London Olympic Games and has recently been upgraded to the rank of Olympic Champion. Accompanied by authorities, family, technical team, training partners and a multitude of press, Lidia was protagonist of the event since she entered the auditorium of the Spanish Olympic Committee with Mr. Alejandro Blanco, President of the Spanish Olympic Committee , Dr Tamas Ajan, President of the International Weightlifting Federation and IOC Honorary Member, Ms. Marisol Casado, member of the International Olympic Committee and Mr. Constantino Iglesias, President of the Spanish Weightlifting Federation. Unprecedented among female weightlifters, Lidia Valentin is now three times Olympic medal winner (having already collected a bronze from Beijing 2008 and a silver from Rio de Janeiro 2016. At the ceremony, Mr. Alejandro Blanco highlighted the role of Dr Tamas Ajan and the IWF in serving justice to clean athletes such as Lidia Valentin. Later the IWF President added emotional words about the outstanding Spanish athlete, highlighting her carrier and called her a global role model for the weightlifting sport. In her concluding words Lidia expressed her gratitude to the Spanish Olympic Committee and the IWF. Lastly, she thanked her coaches, technical team and, most importantly, her family, who supported her all these years. Both the athlete and the Spanish Olympic Committee are also very proud of the 2018 Lifter of the Year title, which Lidia won in two consecutive years. Follow us on social media: Facebook Instagram Twitter

iLiftCLEAN On The Move As World’s Young Weightlifters Head to Vegas

The world’s best young weightlifters are making their final preparations for the IWF Youth World Championships, encouraged by the IWF to successfully complete the iLiftCLEAN E-learning course. More than 200, 13-17 year old athletes are expected to compete from nearly 50 countries from all 5 Continents – forming the core of weightlifting’s next generation. “Education is a vital component of our anti-doping work at the IWF. We understand that for it to be most effective, we should start early in the development of young weightlifters,” said IWF President Tamas Ajan. “The iLiftCLEAN programme is one that we have developed with many knowledgeable partners, including USADA and WADA, and one that we are applying universally to make sure that the culture change we have already brought about in weightlifting is permanent and universal.” For the completion of the iLiftCLEAN E-learning programme 80% or higher need to be completed in the final 3- minute test for athletes All participating athletes may complete the test before or during the championships. Online course materials include three videos about whereabouts obligations of the athlete, the Doping Control process and the rules related to Therapeutic Use Exemptions for medicines. Already available in English, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. As a long term goal the IWF aims to include further language options at the E-learning platform. For this reason the Japanese language version of the material has now also been rolled out, with a view to ensuring host country weightlifters are well informed ahead of Tokyo 2020. Furthermore IWF is working closely with the Japan Anti-Doping Agency on the IWF’s anti-doping education materials as JADA is considered as potential NADO partner because of the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games. Further iLiftCLEAN activities at the Youth World Championships will follow, building on those already welcomed at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games. These are set to include anti-doping seminars and an outreach booth where the young athletes, their support personnel and parents will all have the chance to win prizes by testing their knowledge in a playful way with an anti-doping quiz available in 14 languages “The field for the Youth World Championships includes six athletes with podium placings from the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games and we expect to see many of the young athletes in Las Vegas go on to long and successful careers at the top of our sport,” continued Ajan. “It is our sincere hope that with a position among the best-educated athletes in the world when it comes to anti-doping, they will go on to share their knowledge with their peers and in turn influence the generations to follow.” “To be effective in promoting clean sport, the global anti-doping model needs effective education to help ensure that athletes make informed choices at every step of their career,” commented IWF Director General Attila Adamfi. “From learning about checking supplements and medications to how to provide whereabouts information, clean athletes can easily and conveniently make learning a priority within their training thanks to programmes like iLiftCLEAN.” The IWF Youth World Championships in Las Vegas will run 8-15 March. Follow us on social media: Facebook Instagram Twitter

IWF World Cup concluded in Fuzhou

The IWF World Cup in Fuzhou, CHN has successfully concluded in Fujian Province, China. The city returned to the circulation of international weightlifting after the IWF Grand Prix in 2015. The 2019 IWF World Cup turned out just as magnificent as the Grand Prix four years ago. The Organizing Committee, under the professional leadership of Mr. Zhou Jinqiang, Chinese Weightlifting Association President, did an outstanding job, worthy of the high standard of weightlifters competing. Being a Silver event, an important milestone in the Olympic Qualification for 2020 Tokyo, participants arrived the World Cup from 16 countries of 3 continents to compete for serious money prices. Mr. Zhou confirmed they have the intention to organize a second IWF World Cup still in 2019. The event was held in a modern, impressive sports center. The Fujian Training Center, which opened four years ago thanks to the efforts of former national team head coach Chen Wenbin, with more than 50 training stations, residential blocks for a large team of coaches and athletes from Fujian province, offices and other sport facilities, provided excellent opportunities for the weightlifters. Chinese weightlifters collected 31 gold medals breaking 15 World Records (Junior and Senior), taking the lead on the Medals table. Deng Wei lived up to her fame as one of the world’s best - and most popular - weightlifters with three world records in only four lifts as she won the women’s 64 kilograms. Deng, a local hero broke her own World Records in the Snatch, Clean and Jerk and Total. As a surprise, the women's super-heavyweight world champion Tatiana Kashirina suffered her first defeat since 2012 and finished third behind two Chinese lifters, the World Championships runner-up Meng Suping and the outstanding teenager Li Wemwen, who was making her first international appearance. You can read all the results here! Source: Brian Oliver, Inside the Games Photo credit: xinhuanet.com Follow us on social media: Facebook Instagram Twitter

2019 IWF Youth World Championships Entry List and Preview

The IWF Youth World Championships is organized for the 8th time this year, from 8th to 15th of March in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The 13-17-year-olds had their first World Championships in 2009, and it is organized year by year ever since, except for the Youth Olympic Games years. Since the last Youth Worlds in 2017, many of the young athletes grew into the Junior age group, therefore we expect to see many new Youth World Champions in Vegas. The Entry List lines up more than 200 participants from nearly 50 countries, including 6 athletes who stood on the podium at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. Even an Olympic Champion will compete for the World Champion title in Las Vegas: FAYZULLAEVA Kumushkhon. The 2002 born Uzbek won Gold in the 63kg bodyweight category in Buenos Aires. As of the young women, Turkish NARIN Dilara in +63kg and Egyptian SAID Neama Said Fahmi in 58kg bodyweight category represents the YOG silver medallists. 3 YOG Bronze Medallists are also heading to Las Vegas: 48kg category CAMBEI Mihaela-Valentina (ROU) and 44kg category KARASAKAL Nida (TUR) in women, also Bronze medallist in men’s 85kg ALOTHMAN Ali Yousef (KSA). In the history of Youth World Championships, lifters competed in 7-7 bodyweight categories up until 2016, 8-8 categories from 2017, and this time in Las Vegas, for the first time ever in 10-10 categories. While at the Youth Olympic Games athletes only get medals for their Total results, in Youth World Championships they are also rewarded for their Snatch and Clean and Jerk results. You can read the full ENTRY LIST here!  All Athletes participating in the 2019 IWF Youth Championships will need to have successfully completed the iLiftCLEAN E-learning Course before or during the Event. On this e-learning platform, athletes can watch 3 videos about Whereabouts obligation of the Athlete, Doping Control Process and Rules of Therapeutic Use Exemption. To successfully complete the iLiftCLEAN course,  athletes need to take the final test at the end of the course and obtain a final score of at least 80%. The course is available in English, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Arabic language. It will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Certificates will be valid for one year after the day of completion. There also will be Anti-Doping Education Seminars and an Anti-Doping iLiftCLEAN Booth at the Event where Athletes, their support personnel and parents will be invited to take on an Anti-Doping Quiz and will have a chance to win prizes.   The seminars will take place on the following days: 9th March 2019 Dr. Kyle Pierce, CRC member - Nutrition/Olympism Dr. Lilla Sagi, Legal Counsel, Reka Foldesi, Anti-Doping Coordinator – Useful Anti-Doping Information for Athletes 12th March 2019 Tammy Hanson, USADA - Anti-Doping, Whereabouts Kevin Farley, Kelsey Kennedy, USAWL - Social Media in Weightlifting   Follow us on social media: Facebook Instagram Twitter

West Asian Weightlifting Federation Referee Course

In cooperation with Emirates Weightlifting Federation, the West Asian Weightlifting Federation organized the first professional referee course of West Asia, 12-14 February 2019. Thirty-nine referees, representing UAE, KSA, KWT, IRAQ, OMAN, YEM, LEB, BAH attended the two-day course, where they learned about the latest modifications and updates of the IWF Technical and Competition Rules & Regulations (TCRR). The lecturers were Dr. Mustafa Salih Mahdi, IWF Technical Committee Member and Mr.Mohammed Alharbi, AWF Executive Board Member. Follow us on social media: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

North Korean Om humbled while China’s Hou takes two world records at IWF World Cup

There were two world records for China, and a resounding defeat for a North Korean Olympic champion, on day one of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Cup in Fuzhou, an Olympic qualifying event. The world records, in the women's 49 kilograms, went to 21-year-old HOU Zhihui in the Snatch and Total. HOU was named in China's team for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games but suffered a knee injury just before the start and was replaced. She looks well set for selection for Tokyo 2020 too, and will hope to stay fit. LI Fabin, a silver medallist for China in last year's IWF World Championships, also went for a Snatch World Record in the men's 61kg but he injured his back in failing, and withdrew from the clean and jerk on home soil. LI's injury left the way clear for the Indonesian world champion IRAWAN Eko Yuli to win from Vietnam's THACH Kim Tuan and another Chinese, WANG Hao. Back in fourth place and 16kg behind Yuli's winning total of 297kg was OM Yun Chol, the North Korean who famously won Olympic gold from the men's 56kg B Group at London 2012 and took silver in Rio four years later. OM, 27, one of the few men to have lifted three times his own body weight, struggled in his first attempt at the new minimum-weight Olympic class of 61kg despite winning the Clean and Jerk with 161kg. Weighing in at 58.70kg, OM was giving at least 2kg to his five rivals. He found himself in the very unusual position of being the second lifter called in the Snatch, failed with three of his six lifts, and his Total was lower than what he made in winning gold at 55kg in the World Championships last year, his fourth world title. OM's North Korean team-mate PAK Jong Ju totalled 318kg to win the 67kg from HUANG Minhao - another Chinese who failed with a snatch world record attempt - and DENI Deni of Indonesia. If putting on 5kg, or 10 per cent of his bodyweight, is difficult for OM, the American BATCHELOR Cortney Christine has made an even more remarkable change. Less than five years ago BATCHELOR, 27, finished sixth in the Pan American Championships as a 63kg lifter. Since then she has competed at 58kg, then 53kg and here in Fuzhou she was fifth in the new 49kg class, having shed more than a fifth of her bodyweight along the way. "Her only realistic chance of getting to the Olympics is in this class," said her coach Ursula Garza Papandrea, who is President of USA Weightlifting. BATCHELOR's 170kg total was 3kg behind fellow American KING Morghan Whitney in fourth, with PIRON CANDELARIO Beatriz Elizabeth of Dominica third and North Korea's RI Song Gum second - all of them a long way behind the popular winner and world record holder HOU, from Hunan province. In the Snatch, HOU - who won here as a 53kg lifter at the 2015 IWF Grand Prix, when she was 17 - made her mark with 94kg, and could have bettered it but for failing with her third attempt at 96kg. In the Clean and Jerk she retired after two lifts, having set a record total of 210kg to finish 17kg clear of Song. Vietnamese lifters VUONG Thi Huyen and LAI Gia Thanh won the women's 45kg and men's 55kg, both of which attracted small fields. Source: Insidethegames Follow IWF: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube