The 2008 Olympic champion Andrei Armanau has been climbing his way from several years of no training back into top shape, most recently with a 240 kg jerk from the rack. Aramnau was in many ways one of the most exciting and talented youngsters the sport has seen in a long time. At the 2008 Olympics Aramnau’s competitor Dmitry Klokov explained that once everybody saw Aramnau snatch a world record 200 kg they all tried to work out who was going to come second in the total because they knew that no one would be able to overtake the young Aramnau – Klokov was correct.
This 240 kg rack jerk is 30 kg more than we saw from Andrei Aramnau at the 2018 World Championships and 20 kg more than we have seen from him in training over the last year. As he heads towards the 2019 European Weightlifting Championships in two weeks this is particularly exciting. With an entry total of 401 kg he sits in second place behind the world champion Simon Martirosyan who has an enormous 430 kg entry total, and just 1 kilo above five other 400 kg entry totals that lie below him. Competition will be stiff but his 240 kg rack jerk certainly bodes well.
Andrei Aramnau has always been strong overhead. In fact before his post Olympic retirement Aramnau had hit some of the most impressive overhead training lifts of all time.
- Rack jerk – 260 kg
- Power jerk – 260 kg
- Snatch grip power jerk – 280 kg
- Snatch balance – 240 kg x 3
Bio
Andrei Aramnau, born 17th April 1988, is a 105/109 kg weightlifter from Belarus. As a junior Aramnau won silver at the 2006 Junior World Championships and gold a year later at the 2007 Junior World Championships with a 407 kg total in the 105 kg weight class. That same year aged just 20 Andrei Aramnau became world champion in the 105 kg class, snatching 195 kg and clean and jerking 228 kg, defeating the likes of Dmitry Klokov, Alan Tsagaev, and Oleksiy Torokhtiy. A year later Aramnau became the Olympic champion, setting a new snatch world record of 200 kg and clean and jerking a new Olympic record of 236 kg for a World and Olympic record total of 436 kg.