Best Lifters of 2007 Two First-Timers: Jang MI-RAN and Andrei RYBAKOU
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01-17 oldal-2007-4 angol:01-23 oldal/2007/3 angol 2/28/08 7:31 PM Page 13 Best Lifters of 2007 Two first-timers: Jang MI-RAN and Andrei RYBAKOU As per our most recent “tra- cerned had to participate in is hard to understand… Slivenko and Liu Haixia. ditions”, we asked the at least one official event As far as the final ranking is In the end only four points Weightlifting Family to during the year. concerned, in the men’s decided the ranking. submit their votes via the Notwithstanding these sim- field the voters were almost Rybakou is the first internet or by fax to decide ple restrictions, we received unanimous in nominating weightlifter from Belarus to who were the best lifters of quite a number of void Andrei Rybakou as Best of capture the Lifter of the the world in 2007. The ballots. 2007. The Belarus lifter col- Year title. His country election of the Year’s best For instance, many fans lected more than double (home of double Olympic weightlifter has thus been cast their vote on Hossein the points than the other champion Alexander two athletes making it to Kurlovich, e.g.) can be par- the top trio: Zhang ticularly proud, because Guozheng and Andrei another White-Russian, Aramnau. Aramnau was also able to The ladies’ finish was a far join Rybakou on the imagi- closer race, especially for nary dais. the runner-up position Jang Mi-Ran, the Korean behind the winner Jang Mi- superheavy, is also a first- Ran, i.e. between Oxana time winner and with her Korea can boast their first ever female Best Lifter. Jang Mi-Ran KOR The only Korean before Andrei Rybakou BLR Reza Zadeh, who is undoubtedly the megastar the 26th for the men, and of today’s weightlifting, yet 17th for the women. he failed to appear even Anybody wishing to once in an official competi- express his judgement had tion in the course of 2007. the right to do so. Many Russian Dimitry Berestov ballots were cast, however, also received a vote to the this time again there were candidate for the Best of several voters who disre- 2007 award; the only prob- garded the conditions pub- lem was that the Olympic lished. For instance, any champion had not been voting sheet containing seen on the international only one name or an obvi- stage since the Games. ously ridiculous ranking Some other electors pro- had to be considered as not posed weightlifters to this valid. Another evident pre- prestigious title that are requisite for being voted on hard to find, if at all, in the was that the athlete con- World Ranking List. Well, it 13 01-17 oldal-2007-4 angol:01-23 oldal/2007/3 angol 2/28/08 7:31 PM Page 14 Jang to have sported this Hanna, Gamil – important title was a man: African Federation: Best Male Lifters of 2007 Chun Byung-Kwan in 1991. Chen Xiexia, Qiu Hongmei, 1. Rybakou, Andrei BLR 905 p. (114, 19, 3) Slivenko Oxana – Cha Kum 2. Zhang Guozheng CHN 428 p. (12, 32, 46) Chol, Zhang Guozheng, 3. Aramnau, Andrei BLR 412 p. (9, 45, 31) Yang Fan. 4. Stoitsov, Ivan BUL 225 p. (2, 19, 29) Lifter 5. Scerbatihs, Viktors LAT 153 p. (2, 15, 16) Darab, Riahi – IRI: 6. Yang Fan CHN 95 p. (2, 9, 9) Chen Xiexia, Slivenko 7. Shi Zhiyong CHN 28 p. (0, 0, 7) of the Year Oxana, Li Ping – Rybakou 8. Cha Kum Chol PRK 7 p. (1, 0, 0) Andrei, Aramnau Andrei, 9. Ince, Izzet TUR 5 p. (0, 1, 0) winners Zhang Guozheng. Hossein Reza Zadeh received 12 votes for the first Kurlovich, Alexander – BLR: place (!?), and Dimitriy Berestov got two votes for sec- in history: Slivenko Oxana, Jang Mi- ond place (!?). As neither one of them entered interna- Ran, Liu Haixia – Rybakou tional calendar events in 2007, these votes were disre- Men Andrei, Aramnau Andrei, garded. Six times: Suleymanoglu, Scerbatihs Viktors. Naim – BUL/TUR men he was the only one to Mattingsdal, Per – NOR: Vlad, Nicu – ROM: have set a world record (in Four times: Reza Zadeh, Jang Mi-Ran, Slivenko Chen Xiexia, Jang Mi-Ran, snatch, 187kg), whereby Hossein – IRI Oxana, Qiu Hongmei – Slivenko Oxana – Rybakou defending his previous Rybakou Andrei, Zhang Andrei, Yang Fan, Scer- year’s three world champi- Twice: Blagoev, Blagoi – Guozheng, Aramnau batihs Viktors. onship gold medals. His BUL, Ilin, Ilya – KAZ, Andrei personal best of 393 kilos Ivanov, Ivan – BUL, Mutlu, suggests that he is about to Halil – TUR Parkhomenko, Nikolay – RUS: attack the 400-kg dream Slivenko Oxana, Jang Mi- Elected limit. Once: Chemerkin, Andrei Ran, Liu Haixia – Kon- In 2001, Rybakou was fifth – RUS, Chun Byung-Kwan stantinov Roman, Rybakou at the Junior World Cham- – KOR, Dimas, Pyrros – GRE, Andrei, Yang Fan Best of the pionships (345kg) but a Jeliazkov, Plamen – BUL, year later he was already Peshalov, Nikolai – BUL, Chinen, Reiko Kato – JPN: Year – the winner (370kg). His Petrov, Alexei – RUS, Liu Haixia, Slivenko début at the senior World Petrov, Mikhail – BUL, Oxana, Jang Mi-Ran – Championships in 2003 Rybakou, Andrei – BLR Rybakou Andrei, Yang Fan, was not successful: entered Scerbatihs Viktors to the 94kg he was elimi- Women Why? nated in the snatch. The Twice: Chen Shu-Chih – TPE, Schmitz, Jim – USA: path he covered thereafter Ding Meiyuan – CHN, Jang Mi-Ran, Liu Haixia, Rybakou, Andrei – included the following Liu Chunhong – CHN, Slivenko Oxana – Rybakou BLR – 1982 events and positions: 2004 Tang Weifang – CHN Andrei, Aramnau Andrei, In 2007, Rybakou towered – Olympic Games: Zhang Guozheng. above the field. Among the 2nd (380kg); 2005 – World Once: Chen Yanqing – Championships: CHN, Guan Hong – CHN, Best Woman Lifters of 2007 5th (380kg); 2006 – World Jang Mi-Ran – KOR, Championships: Li Hongyun – CHN, 1. Jang Mi-Ran KOR 471 p. 44, 22, 17 1st (383kg); 2007 – World Peng Liping – CHN, 2. Slivenko, Oxana RUS 342 p. 24, 22, 64 Championships: Popova, Valentina – RUS, 3. Liu Haixia CHN 338 p. 21, 23, 19 1st (393kg). Sun Cai – CHN, Wang 4. Chen Xiexia CHN 300 p. 21, 21, 12 During his career, the Mingjuan – CHN. 5. Qiu Hongmei CHN 201 p. 8, 21, 10 Belarus prodigy collected 6. Cao Lei CHN 169 p. 7, 12, 15 an Olympic silver, 7 senior 7. Mu Shuangshuang CHN 63 p. 2, 5, 6 world champion titles, as A few votes 8. Zabolotnaya, Natalia RUS 62 p. 0, 6, 8 well as in junior world 9. Shainova, Marina RUS 12 p. 0, 0, 3 championships 2 gold in particular: 10. Batsiushka, Hanna BLR 8 p. 0, 0, 2 medals and one each of the 11. Ozkan, Sibel TUR 5 p. 0, 1, 0 silver and bronze medals. Coffa, Sam – AUS: 12. Li Ping CHN 4 p. 0, 0, 1 So far he boasts 7 junior Liu Haixia, Jang Mi-Ran, and 5 senior world records. Shainova Marina – Rybakou Ukrainian Olympic champion Natalia Skakun also Andrey Rybakou counts as Andrei, Stoitsov Ivan, received two votes to first place, but as she did not take a superior favourite for the Aramnau Andrei part in any official events in 2007, these ballots were Olympic gold medal in Bei- ignored. jing in the 85kg. 14 01-17 oldal-2007-4 angol:01-23 oldal/2007/3 angol 2/28/08 7:32 PM Page 15 Zhang Guozheng – a future glorious career. At and seven gold and two sil- He improved his personal CHN – 1976 the Olympic Games in ver medals in world cham- best by 16 kilos between the Sydney Zhang repeated this pionships. No world junior and the senior World The Chinese champion col- total result but there and records have yet been regis- Championships in 2007. lected his third consecutive then it was worth a 4th tered under his name. Back in 2005 he was only world champion title over- place. However, his tri- A strong favourite for the 17th in the world ranking; all; having met no match umphant series started in Olympic title in Beijing. promoted to 3rd place in since 2002. 2002, at the Warsaw World 2006 and in 2007 he is Zhang belongs to the older Championships. He took Aramnau, Andrei – standing in first place. Hold- generation of weightlifters. the world titles in that year BLR – 1988 ing three world champion A look back on the begin- (347.5kg), then again in This young man made a titles among seniors, he also gate-crashing entrée to the sports 4 gold and 2 silver world’s elite. We learned medals among the juniors. his name in 2006, when in With his 420 and 423kg 94kg (393kg) he became a world records in Thailand, runner-up at the Junior he eradicated Marcin Dole- World Championships. The ga’s five-year-old junior 2007 season already found world records.He will be him in the 105kg. Aramnau feared by many in Beijing swept both the junior this coming summer. (407kg) and the senior (423kg) world events. In a Jang Mi-Ran – KOR – 1983 matter of two years, 2006 World Championship win- and 2007, he boosted his ner three consecutive times. results from 393 to 423kg And she won again in an (i.e. by 30 kilos). exhilarating duel against Mu Shuangshuang, with a total equalling the world Andrei Aramnau BLR record. Zhang Guozheng CHN 2003 (345kg). In 2004, with a total of 346kg, he captured the Olympic gold ning of his career does not medal. The next two world reveal too much of his championships went by junior-age accomplish- without Zhang, but in 2007 ments.