W+87
Meng Suping (CHN) hit 137 on second attempt after an epic battle that took her right to the edge of the platform.
Tatiana Kashirina (RUS) opened heaviest with 140 but missed it twice. She got it on her third attempt but the misses handed the advantage to Li Wenwen (CHN), who had made 136 on first attempt and had two left to try to build a lead. She got 142 and 146 for a six-kilo lead.
On clean and jerk, Emily Campbell (GBR) put in a great performance, hitting 145, 149 and 153 for an eight-kilo personal best.
Both Meng Suping (CHN) and Tatiana Kashirina (RUS) missed 173 on their openers. They both came back to make their second attempts but the misses dented their chances of chasing down Li Wenwen.
Li Wenwen (CHN) took and made 175 on her opener, meaning that the other lifters would need something huge to overtake her in the total.
Kim Kuk Hyang (PRK) chose to take 176, which would not earn a medal in total but would give her the chance of a clean and jerk medal. She deadlifted it.
Tatiana Kashirina (RUS) managed 178 on her third clean and jerk, not enough to challenge for the total gold but setting the clean and jerk target for the remaining two lifters to aim for.
Li Wenwen (CHN) hit 182 to go ahead and set a new junior world record total. Her teammate Meng Suping couldn’t manage 183, leaving Li to use her third attempt to attempt o break the senior world clean and jerk and total records.
Li absolutely smashed the lift at 186 to complete her collection of junior and senior world records. We then saw an emotional celebration with her coaches. This young lifter had made a very strong case for being selected for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics next year.
Medals
Snatch | Clean and Jerk | Total | |
Gold | Li Wenwen (CHN) – 146 | Li Wenwen (CHN) – 186 | Li Wenwen (CHN) – 332 |
Silver | Tatiana Kashirina (RUS) – 140 | Tatiana Kashirina (RUS) – 178 | Tatiana Kashirina (RUS) – 318 |
Bronze | Meng Suping (CHN) – 137 | Meng Suping (CHN) – 174 | Meng Suping (CHN) – 311 |
New Records
- Junior world record total – Li Wenwen (CHN) 328 (later broken)
- Junior world record clean and jerk – Li Wenwen (CHN) 186
- Junior world record total – Li Wenwen (CHN) 332
- Senior world record clean and jerk – Li Wenwen (CHN) 186
- Senior world record total – Li Wenwen (CHN) 332
M+109
There was only one likely winner of this category. Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) was always favourite to win by a distance and extend his world records. Some of the other lifters were fairly close to each other though, with most of them opening snatch between 190 and 200.
Ali Davoudi (IRI), the junior world record holder, hit a nice opener at 190 to set up the chance to extend his snatch record. He missed 198 on his second attempt and 199 on his third, losing the chance of a snatch medal.
Gor Minasyan (ARM) opened at 200 to stake his claim to be the second-best super heavyweight here. Walid Bidani (ALG) hit 200 on his last attempt to claim a medal but Eduard Ziaziulin (BLR) could not stick 201.
So, Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) came out for 208 and, as expected, made it easily. Usually, there was still another lifter in the game – Gor Minasyan (ARM) got 212 with his last attempt to briefly take the lead. Lasha, however, would not be beaten. He absolutely smashed 215 with his second attempt.
So Lasha had one more attempt which he could use to break his own snatch world record. He called for 220, which would equal his own all-time snatch record from before the weight categories were changed. By now, we would be surprised to see Lasha miss a snatch and there were no surprises here. It looked like he has plenty in reserve to break his all-time record soon.
You have to feel for Gor Minasyan – he hit snatch that placed him joint-fifth in the all-time heaviest snatchers but it was only good for the silver medal and an eight-kilo deficit behind Talakhadze.
After one clean and jerk at 222 from Walid Bidani (ALG), the bar was loaded with four red plates each side.
Ali Davoudi (IRI) once again set up a junior world record attempt by hitting 230 for his opener. He would have a long wait for his second attempt, which we wanted 240 for. Ten lifts went by and he then raised the attempt to 243, meaning he would wait even longer.
Snatch silver medalist Gor Minasyan (ARM) hit a 237 opener while Ruben Aleksanyan (ARM) also entered the hunt for medals with 241.
Ali Davoudi (IRI) finally came out for his junior world record attempts. Sadly he missed 244 twice.
Lasha was the last to open but there were still a few lifters active when he took his 247 opener, which he comfortably got to give him a huge lead on total.
Gor Minasyan (ARM) got 248 to cement his silver medal position on total.
At this point, the remaining lifters declined their final attempts, perhaps just wanting to see what Lasha could do with his last two.
255 was the next weight called for. It looked like an opener. 264 was then asked for, tantalisingly close to the all-time clean and jerk record of 265.
Hitting 264 gave Lasha the second-biggest clean and jerk of all time, breaking his own current record and pushing his total record up to 484, more than ten kilos more than anyone else has ever managed.
Medals
Snatch | Clean and Jerk | Total | |
Gold | Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) – 220 | Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) – 264 | Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) – 484 |
Silver | Gor Minasyan (ARM) – 212 | Gor Minasyan (ARM) – 248 | Gor Minasyan (ARM) – 460 |
Bronze | Walid Bidani (ALG) – 200 | Ruben Aleksanyan (ARM) – 245 | Ruben Aleksanyan (ARM) – 437 |
New Records
- World snatch record – Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) 220 (all-time)
- World clean and jerk record – Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) 264
- World total record – Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) 484 (all-time)
Final Medal Table
Gold | Silver | Bronze | ||
1 | China | 29 | 14 | 10 |
2 | DPR Korea | 7 | 12 | 5 |
3 | Georgia | 5 | 0 | 2 |
4 | Armenia | 4 | 4 | 2 |
5 | USA | 3 | 3 | 4 |
6 | Turkey | 2 | 2 | 0 |
7 | South Korea | 2 | 2 | 0 |
8 | Colombia | 2 | 1 | 4 |
9 | Chinese TaiPei | 2 | 1 | 0 |
20 | Belarus | 1 | 5 | 1 |
21 | Iran | 1 | 2 | 3 |
22 | India | 1 | 0 | 1 |
23 | Japan | 1 | 0 | 1 |
24 | Russia | 0 | 3 | 0 |
25 | Cuba | 0 | 2 | 0 |
26 | Indonesia | 0 | 2 | 0 |
27 | Quatar | 0 | 2 | 0 |
28 | Bulgaria | 0 | 1 | 3 |
22 | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 2 |
23 | Uzbekistan | 0 | 1 | 2 |
24 | Kazakhstan | 0 | 1 | 1 |
25 | Spain | 0 | 1 | 1 |
21 | Ecuador | 0 | 0 | 4 |
23 | Saudi Arabia | 0 | 0 | 2 |
24 | Philipines | 0 | 0 | 2 |
28 | Romania | 0 | 0 | 2 |
26 | Venezuela | 0 | 0 | 2 |
27 | Albania | 0 | 0 | 1 |
29 | Great Britain | 0 | 0 | 1 |
30 | Mexico | 0 | 0 | 1 |
31 | Mongolia | 0 | 0 | 1 |
32 | Ukraine | 0 | 0 | 1 |
33 | Algeria | 0 | 0 | 1 |