The last one in the line of the Continental Olympic Qualification events, the African Championships have started in Strand, South Africa with the participation of 140 competitors from 15 countries.

RESULTS are published day by day.

National Federations are invited to send their delegates to the 2008 IWF General Congress, to be held in Cali, Colombia, prior to the Junior World Championships, on 14th June 2008. This will be the last official gathering of the affiliated federations before the Olympic Games and the Electoral Congress.

The letter of INVITATION, the AGENDA and the PARTICIPATION FORM are downloadable.

www.iwf.net has interviewed the General Secretary of the Asian Weightlifting Federation, Ali Moradi, who spoke about the changing face of this continent's weightlifting and the challenges of the 21st Century.

Read the INTERVIEW

At the 39th Men's Asian Championships in Kanazawa City, Japan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan could best use the Continental Qualification opportunity, because they earned two slots each to the 2008 Beijing Games.

In the competitions, China was the most outstanding nation and the +105kg ended with an Iranian gold-silver finish, but both of these Asian nations had already won their quota to the Games. Look up the RESULTS for more details.

In addition to the above-mentioned two, further Asian nations who can now send one male lifter each to Beijing are: Kyrgizstan,, Iraq and and Saudi Arabia. (The results, and thus the qualification, are of course, subject to the outcome of the anti-doping controls.)

At the conclusion of the women's competitions at the Asian Continental Qualification Championships in Kanazawa City, Japan, the following nations obtained Olympic slots for Beijing 2008, for one athlete each:
INA - VIE - MGL - IND

(This qualification will become final only after the anti-doping controls.)

The men continue their contest for the Olympic slots and Continental titles until 1 May 2008.

RESULTS

Sixty-eight women and 117 men are on the start list of the Asian Championships starting on 27 April 2008 in Kanazawa City, Japan.
With  quite a few nations of the Continent already having won their quota to the Beijing Olympic Games, athletes representing 28 member-countries are still hoping to earn the opportunity to fly to China this August.
The START LIST  will be available from the opening page of this website, while you will be able to follow the progress of the Asian Championships by clicking on the CHAMPIONSHIPS website.

Click here for the RESULTS

In both the women's and the men's heaviest categories excitement was not spared from participants and spectators at the 2008 European Championships, which was rounded up last weekend in Italy.

In the final count, the following nations won the available Olympic slots for Beijing on the basis of the team classification:

Women - TUR: 2, GER and FRA: 1 each - For details: Qualification/Women

Men - ALB: 2, SVK: 2, HUN, LTU and ESP: 1 each - For details: Qualification/Men

The European Championships of 2008 for Men and Women are being run in Lignano Sabbiadoro, a famous Italian seaside resort. This is at the same time the last Olympic qualification opportunity for the Continent's weightlifters.

In the men's categories altogether 163 lifters were entered from 36 countries. The women's fields are composed of 108 athletes representing 27 European nations. A number of Olympic, senior and junior world champions are taking part.
The keenest interest among the stars was focused on triple Olympic champion Turkish Halil MUTLU. A champion of Atlanta, Sydney and Athens, MUTLU has not been in competition since 2005, yet he decided to get ready for Beijing and become four-times Olympic champion - the first in the history of weightlifting.
The lack of competition involvement for several years has left its mark on MUTLU's performance: he only succeeded with one attempt each in both the snatch and the clean and jerk. In total he made 269kg (his own world record being 305kg) and heavier bodyweight ranked him second behind Moldavian Igor BOUR.

In the women's lightest category we welcomed another Turkish Olympic champion, Nurcan TAYLAN. She managed to win the 48kg with a 196kg result.

European winners - Women:

48kg    TAYLAN Nurcan (TUR)                   196kg (87, 109)
53kg    TROTSENKO Natalya (UKR)             197kg (88, 109)
58kg    KLEJNOWSKA Aleksandra (POL)        212kg (91, 121)
63kg    DALUZYAN Meline (ARM)                 235kg (107, 128)
69kg    AVDALYAN Nazik (ARM)                  242kg (106, 136)
75kg    ZABOLOTNAYA Natalya (RUS)          264kg (123, 141)

Men:

56kg    BOUR Igor (MDA)                           269kg (118, 151)
62kg    PETROSYAN Sergei (RUS)                302kg (135, 167)
69kg    MARTIROSYAN Tigran (ARM)            346kg (158, 188)

The European Championships finish on Sunday, 20 April 2008. View RESULTS

The National Olympic Committees of the world gathered from the 7th to the 9th of April to participate in the XVI General Assembly of ANOC held in Beijing. On April 10^th, they held their Joint Meeting with the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee. 

According to ANOC President Mario Vazquez Rana, ANOC would give full support to the Beijing Olympic Games. "ANOC members express full support to the Beijing Olympic Games and none of our members gave any indication of not supporting the game," Rana told.

Rana added that all 205 member NOCs affiliated to the ANOC will "for 100 percent sure" participate in the Beijing Games.

Dr. Tamás Aján, IWF President, Member of IOC participated at International Federations' meeting where all participants expressed their firm viewpoint that sports and politics should respect each other and the world of sport does not want the political world to interfere with their affairs, he added.

Dr. Tamas Ajan had a meeting with Mr. Yang Shu An, BOCOG Executive Vice President and they agreed to organize a meeting for International Technical Officials on 8th of August 9.00 in the weightlifting competition hall. The International Technical Officials' participation is compulsory in this meeting.

The accreditations are now being processed by the IWF Secretariat and the BOCOG Accreditation.