The Iranian 109kg lifter Kia Ghadami just unofficially broke the World Record clean and jerk at a provincial competition. This 241kg lift is 1kg heavier than the world record set by Armenia’s Simon Martirosyan at the 2018 Weightlifting World Championships. Ghadami snatched 185kg along with this 241kg clean and jerk to total 426kg, 7kg more than World silver medalist Yang Zhe.
Ghadami has not competed at the World Championships now since 2014, yet his training lifts have gone from strength to strength during recent months. He has snatched over 190kg more than once and clean and jerked over 230kg countless times. Iran is not short of high level weightlifters, winning two golds in the total and one bronze in the total at the 2018 World Championships. Their 109kg lifter Mohammadreza Bararai placed 6th (181/215/396), begging the question – When will Kia Ghadami make his way back into the international team?
Kia Ghadami (109kg) hasn’t competed for Iran internationally since 2011 where he placed 7th at the Junior World Championships. He went on to compete at the World Championships twice (’13 & ’14), took the silver medal in the clean and jerk and bronze medal in the total at the 2013 Asian Championships, and took bronze at the 2017 Summer Universiade.