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Championship of “Royals” expected in ChiangMai 2007 Royal WWC Preview

In the 116-year old history tries with 189 competitors; we are looking forward to Tesovic; or bronze-medal of weightlifting world women: 39 countries with strong fields with old and winner Viktors Scerbatihs championships the partici- 143 competitors). Between new forces alike. Former of Latvia. Further athletes pation record is still held by 16th and 26th September superstars not seen for a returning to ChiangMai are: 1999, the 70th Men’s 2007, this will be the last while may re-emerge. For Eric Bonnel, (he was and 13th Women’s World major opportunity for the instance, Georgian George 8th), Akos Sandor, Championships. lifters and their nations to Asanidze, who won gold in (13th), Marino Boer, The main qualification obtain a share of the 85kg at the Athens (6th). Canadian Maryse event for the Olympic slots. Olympics but never seen Turcotte was also among welcomed As far as statistics go, we since on the platform. As the participants in 1997 in an unprecedented field of should point out that Vice President of the Geor- ChiangMai. aspiring Olympians: com- between 1891 and 2006 gian Federation, he did Of course, there will be a prising 395 male competi- altogether 342 male and 93 appear though. A number parade of the megastars of tors from 79 countries and female world champions of weathered, “old” fighters our days as well. Out of 231 female lifters represent- have been awarded with the are expected to pop up, Athens’ 8 Olympic champi- ing 51 nations. gold medal. their line led by 37-year old ons only As a matter of fact, all The overall number of Olympic and world cham- (56kg) and Dmitriy Olympic qualification world championships pion Nicolay Pechalov, Berestov (105kg) will be championships drew mas- medals issued is 4,799. representing . missing! The proud line of sive attendance: Among those entered we Olympic Champions entered is led by Hossein Men Women Rezazadeh, but it also 1995 : 63 nations – 345 lifters (no women in OG yet) includes Shi Zhiyong, Zhang Guozheng, Sagir 2003 : 59 nations – 297 lifters 47 nations – 208 lifters Taner, Nicolay Pechalov 2006 Santo Domingo: 59 nations – 298 lifters 39 nations – 186 lifters and George Asanidze among the men; and Taylan Nurcan and Liu Chunhong Next in line is , among the ladies. It seems, more particularly: Chiang- World Championship Medals 1891–2006 however, that both Thai Mai. This beautiful city, Gold Silver Bronze All Olympic champions, Paw- some three thousand kilo- ina Thongsuk and Udom- Men: 1159 11555 1153 3467 metres from , is Women: 444 444 444 1332 porn Polsak will be missing selected to make a vast in accordance with the entry impact on the future forms. weightlifting lineups of the Most Medal-Winning Countries The younger generation 2008 Olympic Games. who may challenge the for- It does not take a prophet to Men: Gold Silver Bronze All mer stars includes Ilya Ilin, forecast that all the 1999 URS 331 208 93 632 Andrey Rybakou, Dmitry Athens turnout records will BUL 200 160 118 478 Klokov as well as Jang Mi- probably be surpassed in POL 52 85 108 245 Ran, Mu Shuangshuang, September 2007. We have CHN 76 64 68 206 Qiu Hongxia, Cao Lei, every right to expect The HUN 33 52 74 159 Nadezhda Evstyukhina – Largest World Champi- GER 48 56 50 154 just to mention a few onships of All Times. Women: Gold Silver Bronze All names. The city of ChiangMai is not CHN 300 79 23 402 new to the worldwide TPE 25 51 58 134 weightlifting scene. It host- BUL 18 55 60 133 ed the world champi- HUN 8 37 33 76 onships exactly one decade RUS 20 28 27 75 ago. That one was the first USA 8 29 33 70 world rendezvous after the Olympics – an The competitions in Chi- can find some lifters who event of great success and to angMai, as said, are to deci- won in ChiangMai just ten maximum satisfaction of all sively shape the Olympic years ago: Bulgarian Stefan attending (Men: 51 coun- entries in Beijing. Therefore, Georgiev, or Slovak Martin

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And now let’s take a quick Roman Konstantinov, 63kg: Quyang Xiaofang, Nadezhda Evstyukhina, look at the title defenders, RUS. Winner in snatch with CHN. After capturing three RUS. World champion in i.e. the 15 male and 11 177kg. Silver medallist of gold medals in Santo snatch 2006. No entry in female world champions of the EC with 176kg in Domingo, she became run- 2007. the 2006 Qualification snatch. ner-up to Thongsuk in Worlds held in Santo at the Asian Games +75kg: Jang Mi-Ran, KOR. Domingo: Szymon Kolecki, POL. with 247kg. Winner of the duel with Clean and jerk champion in Mu, 314kg in total, 179kg 2006 with 219kg. European 69kg: Oksana Slivenko, in jerk. Lost to Mu at the Men: champion in 2007, jerking RUS. Stood out with three Asian Games last Decem- 218kg. gold medals and 263kg. She ber. 56kg: Li Zheng, CHN. Win- took the European title in ner in total and snatch. No 105kg: Marcin Dolega, 2007 with 257kg. Mu Shuangshuang, CHN. participation in IWF events POL. Gold in jerk and total, Winner in snatch at the since the WC. world record holder in 75kg: Cao Lei, CHN. World 2006 WWC. Took a revenge Boulet Sergio Martinez, snatch. Not entered since champion in total (268kg) on Jang in Doha (317kg). CUB. World champion in Santo Domingo. and jerk (150kg). Asian Her 2007 Asian champion jerk. Won the Pan American Games champion in Doha score was 305kg. Games with excellent clean Dmitriy Lapikov, RUS. with 272kg. and jerk. World champion in snatch (194kg). 3rd in the Euro- 62kg: Qiu Le, CHN. Three peans. gold medals, 308kg in total. In 2007 Asian Champi- +105kg: Hossein Reza 2007 Royal WWC Preview onships he totalled 315kg Zadeh, IRI. Unmatched in and won. Dominica. No results since then. Iranians say he is get- 69kg: Vencelas Dabaya, ting ready for ChiangMai. FRA. 332kg in total and 186kg in jerk. Won the 2007 European Champi- onships with 331kg, with a Women: strong attempt at 190kg. 48kg: Yang Lian, CHN. Shi Zhiyong, CHN. Limited Pocketed all golds in to the snatch gold in Dominica and not seen ever Dominica. Took the 2007 after. Asian title with 327kg. 53kg: Qiu Hongxia, CHN. 77kg: Taner Sagir, TUR. Did not participate in any 361kg in a big fight major event in 2007. crowned him world cham- pion. At the 2007 Euro- 58kg: Qiu Hongmei, CHN. peans he surprised winning She took the world title only bronze, with 353kg. with 237kg and this year’s Asian title with 241kg. Li Hongli, CHN. Defeated by Dabaya only on body- Svetlana Tsarukaeva, weight, excelling in snatch. RUS. Defending world Asian Champion 2007 with champion in snatch and no 369kg, 2 kilos over his last show yet in 2007. performance in snatch. Kameaim Wandee, THA. 85kg: , World champion in jerk BLR. Collected three golds with 130kg. Silver medal at in Santo Domingo. Not the Asian Games 2006, with seen ever since. 126kg in jerk.

94kg: Ilya Ilin, KAZ. Best Lifter in the last two years. In Dominika took only the Can George Asanidze total gold. Skipped the make the great Junior and the Asian Cham- ‘comeback’ in Chiangmai? pionships this year.

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