News

IRIWF President meeting with IWF President

Mr. Ali Moradi, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Weightlifting Federation paid a visit to Budapest in order to have discussion with Dr. Tamas Ajan, President. Topics such as the development of Women Weightlifting in Iran and National level organization plans were addressed. The IWF received the latest up-to-date information regarding the 2nd International Fajr Cup to be held in Ahvaz from 9-14 March

All Indonesia Weightlifting Association awards free houses to 2016 Rio Olympic silver medallists

Indonesia’s two Olympic silver medal-winning weightlifters from 2016 Rio Olympic Games have been awarded free houses by their national governing body. The Indonesian Weightlifting Federation promised the gesture to Eko Yuli Irawan and Sri Wahyuni Agustiani, runners-up in the respective men’s 62 kilograms and women’s 48kg categories, during a two-day meeting in South Jakarta. "This is a sign of support for our high-achieving athletes," Indonesian Weightlifting Federation chairman Rosan Roeslani said. "We hope this token of appreciation can inspire other weightlifters to achieve maximum results at two major upcoming events, the 2018 Asian Games (in Jakarta) and 2020 Tokyo Olympics." Also given an award was Sri Hartati, a powerlifter who has won five World Championship gold medals, including one in American city Orlando in November. Irawan finished 6kg shy of Colombian Óscar Figueroa’s winning total of 318kg in the men’s 62kg. He thus became the first lifter to win three Olympic medals since the introduction of the current weight categories in 1998 following his 56kg bronze at Beijing 2008 and 62kg bronze at London 2012. Agustiani, meanwhile, came second to Thailand’s Sopita Tanasan, who triumphed in the women’s 48kg by a margin of 8kg with a total of 200kg. Source:

Happy Birthday to Naim Süleymanoglu!

One of the biggest characters in weightlifting Naim Süleymanoglu turned 50 today! His nickname “Pocket Hercules” doesn’t come from his giant stature but from his giant power and magnificent technic. He was born in Bulgaria, but he achieved his biggest accomplishments under the Turkish flag from 1986 – 2000. He was World Champion in 1985 and 1986 as Bulgarian and as a Turkish weightlifter reached victories in the Men’s 60, 62 and 64 kg categories. Only a very few weightlifters are capable to lift three times their own bodyweight, but Süleymanoglu is the only one until today who did it with an additional 10 kg. In his glory days, he set a Clean and Jerk World Record of 190 kg in Soul in 1988 winning the Olympic Medal in the men’s 60 kg category. He became an Olympic Champion in 1992 and 1996, World Champion in Total in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1995; only to mention his biggest achievements. He set world records multiple times but at the very first one, he was only 16 years old. After retirement, he became the Best Weightlifter of the Century and he received the Olympic Order in 2001. He is also member of the IWF Hall of Fame. Happy Birthday to Naim

Happy Birthday to Naim Süleymanoglu!

One of the biggest characters in weightlifting Naim Süleymanoglu turned 50 today! His nickname “Pocket Hercules” doesn’t come from his giant stature but from his giant power and magnificent technic. He was born in Bulgaria, but he achieved his biggest accomplishments under the Turkish flag from 1986 – 2000. He was World Champion in 1985 and 1986 as Bulgarian and as a Turkish weightlifter reached victories in the Men’s 60, 62 and 64 kg categories. Only a very few weightlifters are capable to lift three times their own bodyweight, but Süleymanoglu is the only one until today who did it with an additional 10 kg. In his glory days, he set a Clean and Jerk World Record of 190 kg in Soul in 1988 winning the Olympic Medal in the men’s 60 kg category. He became an Olympic Champion in 1992 and 1996, World Champion in Total in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1995; only to mention his biggest achievements. He set world records multiple times but at the very first one, he was only 16 years old. After retirement, he became the Best Weightlifter of the Century and he received the Olympic Order in 2001. He is also member of the IWF Hall of Fame. Happy Birthday to Naim

Update on Reanalysis

The Disciplinary Commission of the International Olympic Committee has recently issued decisions in the reanalysis cases of the following athletes: Beijing 2008 CHEN, Xiexia (CHN) 48 kg CAO, Lei (CHN) 75 kg LIU, Chun Hong (CHN) 69 kg London 2012 SIMSEK, Sibel (TUR) 63 kg VARDANYAN, Norik (ARM) 94 kg ZAIROV, Intigam (AZE) 94 kg These athletes were found to have committed Anti-Doping Rule Violations and their results from the 2008/2012 Olympic Games were disqualified by the IOC DC. The IWF will take over the Results Managements of the above cases after the relevant appeal deadlines expire and the status of the cases will then be changed to 'closed IOC/ongoing IWF' on the IWF Reanalysis

Dr. Kyle Pierce voted Ghana’s Sports Coach of the Year

Weightlifting Ghana’s 2016 calendar ended on an extremely good note with its Head Coach Dr Kyle Pierce being voted by Ghanaian sports fans as the "Coach of the Year" and GWF sweeping most of the sports excellence awards in Ghana's two most prestigious sports excellence awarding institutions; the Ghana Sports Fans Awards and the Sports Writers Association of Ghana Awards. The Ghana Sports Fans Awards is aimed at giving sports followers the chance to vote for sports personalities who excelled in the year under review and is organised by an Accra based radio station, Happy FM which is one of Ghana’s most-listened sports station. President of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation (GWF) had this to say about Dr Pierce in his end of year message to Ghana; “I want to personally say a big thank you to our Head Coach, Dr. Kyle Pierce who I always compare to the likes of Antonio Contes and Pep Guardiolas in football, because he is the finest weightlifting coach any country will love to have, his love and dedication for the sport and commitment to the development of young talents is unmatched and it was through his brain work together with his technical committee that we are where we are today”. "Dr Kyle Pierce joined the Ghana Weightlifting Federation in 2014 and since his association with the team, his contribution to the tremendous growth of weightlifting in Ghana is extremely remarkable, his love for our country and especially the deprived communities where most of our weightlifting talents are found, is unimaginable, one of such communities is the Odododiodio Constituency in the Greater Accra Region where most of our young weightlifters reside". It would be recalled that Dr. Kyle Pierce started his coaching stint in Ghana by training 27 coaches under an Olympic Solidarity Programme in 2014 and was the Head Coach of the National Team to the Commonwealth Games in Scotland in 2014. Dr Pierce for the first time qualified weightlifting to the 2016 Olympic Games on merit, hitherto, Ghana's qualification to the Olympics from the Universality Place (Wild Card). Very recently, he led the Ghana National Weightlifting Team, the Black Cranes to Penang, Malaysia to win two gold medals, one silver and a bronze medal in the 2016 Commonwealth Championship. At the Ghana Sports Fans Awards, also the President of the GWF was voted for by the Sports fans of Ghana as The Sports Personality of the Year whilst Weightlifting and GWF Secretary General got short-listed for Sports Discipline of the Year and Administrator of the Year respectively. In the SWAG Awards (which is voting by all the Sports Journalists in Ghana) Olympian, Christian Amoah was voted for as the Male Weightlifter of the Year. African bronze medallist Ruth Baffoe was also named as the Female Weightlifter of the Year. Richmond Osarfo (17 years) who took the world by storm and won two medals in his first major international competition, was voted for as the Sports Discovery of the Year and putting the icing on the cake, the GWF President Ben Nunoo Mensah was voted for as The Sports Federation President for the Year 2016. Source: GWF MEDIA & PUBLICITY