The weightlifting news from this week (Feb 5th-12th) includes:
- The battle for Olympic spots in the -96kg class
- Results from the International Solidarity Championships in Uzbekistan
- Big lifts from select members of Team USA
- A young group of weightlifting sensations from Kazakhstan
You can listen to the news show using the player below, and subscribe to the WH podcast on iTunes here, and on Spotify here.
Rostami and Moradi
The question that we at Weightlifting House get perhaps the most often at the moment, be it on social media posts, YouTube, or through the Patreon, is whether Iranian Olympic champions Kianoush Rostami and Sohrab Moradi are going to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
I decided to take a look at the numbers and give an answer as to how they both stand compared to their ranking, half-way through the third and final qualification period.
If you don’t understand the Olympic qualifying system we highly recommend that you read our full Tokyo Qualification Guide here.
Kianoush Rostami
After famously bombing out at the 2019 World Championships and failing to properly register for the 49th ‘Challenge 210’ the month after, Rostami ended up with zero points from the second qualifying period. When the IWF adds up Rostami’s top four Robi points from his six competitions at the end of April 2020, they will be forced to include his zero as one of them.
Now with five competitions to his name, Rostami will have to compete at the Asian Championships in April, a gold tier Olympic qualifier, that in the hopes of replacing his score from the 2018 EGAT Cup of 810 Robi points.
Assuming he will need 3,500 Robi points across his four top performances, one of which must be his zero from period two, Rostami will need1,500 Robi points from the Asian Championships, more points that any performance from any competing athlete. Even with the 10% Robi bonus, that would require 1,350 points, equal to a 441kg total, 25kg over the world record.
So to answer the question, can Rostami qualify for the Olympics?
Yes, he can.
Will he?
Probably not, no.
Sohrab Moradi
Sohrab Moradi is in a similar position to Kianoush Rostami, in that he scored very poorly in qualification period two. Not quite the zero points that we saw from Kianoush, but Moradi’s 90 points from Switzerland are quite a drop off from the 1,242 points he gained at the 2018 World Championships.
Moradi currently holds 1,333 Robi points, though unlike Rostami, he has two more competitions to add to those points. Assuming he will need a total of 3,500 points altogether, he ‘only’ needs to gain around 1,083 points from each competition.
For the West Asian Championships, a silver tier even later this month, 1,083 points will require a total of 405kg, up eleven kilos under his own world record total of 416kg.
For the Asian Championships, a gold tier event, 1,083 points will require a total of 399kg, 17kg under his world record total.
So, to answer the question, can Moradi qualify for the Olympics?
Yes, he can.
Will he?
Possibly…
International Solidarity Championships
The silver tier Olympic qualifier took place this week in Tashkent Uzbekistan.
A full start list and set of results can be found here
Kazakh Youth Team
A young team of Kazakh weightlifters is doing incredible things in training, however, all videos have subsequently been deleted.
- Bekbolat 96kg (16 years old) – Hit a 210kg clean and jerk. The Youth World Record is 196kg
- Artyom Antropov 96kg (20 years old) – Hit a 216kg clean and jerk
- Adiletuly Nurgissa 89kg (20 years old) – Hit a 203kg Clean and jerk, 1kg under the Junior World Record, as well as a 175kg snatch, 5kg over Karen Avagyan’s Junior World Record
- Taisuyev Saikhan 67kg (17 years old) – Hit a 180kg clean and jerk. The Youth World Record is 166kg
- Anatoliy Savelyev 67 (20 years old) – Hit a 175kg clean and squat jerk
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