Competition Reports

The 2011 World Weightlifting Championships: The Women JI Jing (CHN) Charniga photo The 2011 championships like last year’s event was a qualifying event for the 2012 Olympics in London. There were a few more athletes participating in this year’s competition than last year in Antalya: 519 versus 515. However, this was the last chance to […]

 Ilya Ilyn (KAZ) snatches 181 kg. Charniga photo. 56 kg ZHAO Chaojun (CHN) jerks 159 kg. Charniga photo. The two Chinese entries  were the heavy favorites in this class: WU Jingbiao (CHN) and ZHAO Chaojun (CHN). The 2008 Olympic champion and 2009 World and Chinese National Games champion LONG Qingquan (CHN) who missed all three

The Men     The 56 kg class has long been a weak category for Europe since the departure of Halil Mutlu (TUR). The Russians have not prepared a good 56 kg in many years. The lightest Russian entry for this competition was the 69 kg class. Oleg Sirghi (MOL) was eighth after the snatch

The 2011 European Weightlifting Chammpionships Andrew Charniga, Jr. Sportivnypress©   The 2011 European Weightlifting Championships took place in Kazan, Russia. Kazan is the capitol of the Republic of Tatarstan. This area has a long history in weightlifting. Alexander Kourinov, Arkady Vorobeyev, and Nicolai Kolesnikov were all from Tatarstan. A huge arena called the Basket Hall

The 2010 World Weightlifting Championships Part II Andrew Charniga, Jr. Sportivny Press© The Men   “Kono, Davis and Anderson would chew gum.” During the heyday of American weightlifting in the 1950s, multiple times world and Olympic champions like Tommy Kono, John Davis, and Paul Anderson could be seen on videos from that era chewing gum