M55
The first A group of the 2019 World Weightlifting Championships started well with a double-bodyweight snatch from John Fabuar Ceniza. The standard was overall good but no one could challenge The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea’s Om Yun Chol, who dominated the category, winning by twenty-eight kilos in the total.
Om opened on snatch after everyone else had finished and took a seven-kilo lead into clean and jerks. After winning the category with his opener, he then missed a 163 kg clean and jerk world record attempt. Undaunted, he increased the weight to 166 – over triple bodyweight. He stuck the jerk to break his own clean and jerk world record and set the M55 total world record for the first time.
| Snatch | Clean and Jerk | Total | |
| Gold | OM Yun Chol (PRK) – 128 | OM Yun Chol (PRK) – 166 | OM Yun Chol (PRK) – 294 |
| Silver | NGUYEN Tran Anh Tuan (VIE) – 120 | GHASHGHAEI Hafez (IRI) – 149 | SON Igor (KAZ) – 266 |
| Bronze | SON Igor (KAZ) – 120 | AL SALEEM Mansour Abdulrahim M (KSA) – 147 | AL SALEEM Mansour Abdulrahim M (KSA) – 265 |
New Records
Clean and Jerk world record – OM Yun Chol (PRK) – 166
Total world record – OM Yun Chol (PRK) – 294
W45
The snatch part of this A group was hard-fought, with several athletes having attempts to put themselves into gold medal position towards the end. It was ultimately won by Saziye Erdogan (Turkey) by just one kilo ahead of Ludio Montero Ramos (Cuba).
In the clean and jerks, the jury came into play for the first time in this championships. First they overruled a lift that the referees had passed. Then, an athlete challenge from Ayse Dogan caused them to review a no lift using the video playback technology. They quickly decided that the lift was indeed a press out.
Several lifters were in contention for both the clean and jerk and total medals and the number of no lifts shows that there were lots of missed opportunities. In the end, Lisa Seitiwadi (Indonesia) took the clean and jerk gold but Saziye Erdogan (Turkey) came out victorious in the total.
None of the lifters came close to the senior world standards, which are looking very hard to beat in this category, so it may be some time before we see world record holders in W45. However, the junior snatch standard (78) looks like it might be exceeded by a couple of these lifters soon.
| Snatch | Clean and Jerk | Total | |
| Gold | ERDOGAN Saziye (TUR) – 77 | SETIAWATI Lisa (INA) – 95 | ERDOGAN Saziye (TUR) –169 |
| Silver | MONTERO RAMOS Ludia M. (CUB) – 76 | ERDOGAN Saziye (TUR) –92 | MONTERO RAMOS Ludia M. (CUB) – 167 |
| Bronze | KHONG My Phuong (VIE) – 74 | VUONG Thi Huyen (VIE) – 91 | SETIAWATI Lisa (INA) – 165 |