Women’s 64 kg
Loredana Toma (Romania) seemed a dead cert to win this group and that is how it turned out. Her final total of 239 put her ten kilos above her teammate Irina Lepsa, who took silver. Zoe Smith (GBR) took bronze, just beating her teammate Sarah Davies by a single kilo.
The personal battle between the two British lifters was enthralling, with Sarah taking a 2kg lead from snatch but Zoe managing a 128 clean and jerk after a flurry of changes from both lifters. Zoe took the clean and jerk silver medal, the total bronze, and strengthened her Olympic qualification chances. Sarah still has a very slim Robi point lead (1539.77 to 1529.55) but the fight for a potential Olympic place is very much alive.
Meanwhile, Loredana Toma’s mind was on records with the gold medals assured after her first snatch and second clean and jerk. She extended her own European snatch record to 111 but could not hit 114 for a new world record. She finished the lift on her knees with the bar still overhead. She also had a try at the European total record but could not stick the required 132 clean and jerk.
As has happened several times so far in this competition, an Italian lifter showed fantastic technique. Giorgia Bordignon took the snatch bronze with 101. Sadly for her though, she couldn’t match the performance on clean and jerk.
Men’s 73
This was a fantastically competitive group, with a queue of lifters taking shots at lifts for medals. Bozhidar Andreev (Bulgaria) came out on top in the end, hitting an amazing European clean and jerk record to claim gold.
The European U23 snatch record was broken twice by Bozhidar Andreev – first with 148 and then 153. The U23 clean and jerk record changed hands twice, first being set by Muhammed Furkan Ozbek (Turkey) at 180 before Andreev claimed it with 181, 187 and the 192 that gave him the senior record too.
The jury once again got involved in this group as they have on previous days, overturning a lift for Ramazan Ilhan (Turkey) for oscillation. It seems the rule is being enforced, and very tightly. Even the referees later joined in, handing two red lights to David Sanchez (Spain) for the same infraction.
Records
- Loredana Toma (ROU) – W64 European Senior Snatch 111
- Bozhidar Andreev (BUL) – M73 European U23 Snatch 153
- Bozhidar Andreev (BUL) – M73 European U23 Clean and Jerk 153
- Bozhidar Andreev (BUL) – M73 European U23 Total 345
- Bozhidar Andreev (BUL) – M73 European Senior Clean and Jerk 192
- Bozhidar Andreev (BUL) – M73 European Senior Total 345
Medal Table
Romania shoot to the top of the medal table table, thanks to three gold and a couple of silvers from the Women’s 64 kg category.
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | |
| Romania | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Turkey | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Bulgaria | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Italy | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Latvia | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Belarus | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| France | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Poland | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Albania | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Georgia | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Russia | 0 | 7 | 3 |
| Germany | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Great Britain | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Armenia | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Spain | 0 | 0 | 2 |