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The 2019 IWF Grand Prix closes with great success and a Junior World Record

The 2019 IWF Grand Prix ODESUR CSLP in Lima, Peru was one of the highlights of the IWF calendar beside the World Championships, which concluded last weekend where the audience saw many impressive results and a Junior World Record.

Prior to the competition, South American Weightlifting Confederation held its Annual Congress, with the participation of 14 Member Federations. The Pan American Weightlifting Federation held its last Executive Board meeting of its four years period, where the EB decided to hold its next Electoral Congress in the Dominican Republic.

On this exclusive, invitation-only championships, 72 athletes (38 women and 34 men) from 24 countries of 4 continents competed to win prize money and to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games, as the Grand Prix was also a Silver Level Qualification Event.

Columbia topped both gender’s medal table (women: 5,5,1; men: 8,4,0). At the women, China (4,2,0) and Canada (3,0,1) followed, while at the men’s table, Venezuela (3,0,3) and Dominican Republic (2,3,1) rounded up the top three.

CIKAMATANA Eileen returned to international stages after changing her nationality from Fiji to Australia. The 20-year old athlete not only won the women’s 87kg bodyweight category by beating the 2018 World Champion AO Hui (CHN) but also set a new Clean and Jerk Junior World Record at 151kg.

 

The achievement was rewarded with loud applaud by the audience – it is the first World Record set by an Oceanian weightlifter since 1993!

Quality Media has produced and distributed worldwide the 2019 Grand Prix Lima with 8 hand cameras and 1 crane camera. It has been broadcasted on television in 20 countries, more than 30 local media covered the event and online live streaming was available all around the world, generating more than 300.000 viewership.

The event welcomed several important sports leaders, including Iván Dibós, Bernard Rajzman and Camilo Perez, IOC Members; National Olympic Committee Presidents of 6 countries along with Dr Tamás Aján, IWF President and several IWF EB Members.

Dr Tamás Aján and Ángel Velmori Niño, President of the Nicaraguan Weightlifting Federation were honoured with Lifetime Achievement Rewards by the South American Weightlifting Confederation in the San Marcos University of Peru, which is the longest operating university in the Americas.

“I would like to congratulate the Peruvian Federation for organizing this prestigious event and I thank the Peruvian government for the continuous support and investments in weightlifting. I really hope this is the beginning of a tradition and we will come together in Peru every year from now on. I was happy to see the same sports equipment was used on the competition as on the 2019 Pan American Games – a great opportunity for weightlifting to contribute to the living legacy of the successful Games,” said Dr Ajan.