Record-breaking Djuraev makes his mark

Akbar Djuraev from Uzbekistan put on a show as he won his fourth world title at the IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Ningbo, China. He outperformed the Olympic champion Liu Huanhua by 27kg in leading an Asian 1-2-3 on this first step towards Los Angeles 2028.

Djuraev, 27, predicted a reversal of fortunes after finishing second to Liu at the Paris Olympic Games. There are nine more opportunities on the LA pathway after this opening qualifier and sixth-placed Liu has plenty of time to improve, but Djuraev looks unstoppable.

He won on 198-234-432, taking world records in snatch and total. He failed only with his final attempt on 238kg, which would have given him the clean and jerk world record too. Perhaps Djuraev will wait until February, when Uzbekistan hosts an Olympic qualifier.

Lauret Rodriguez from Romania won snatch silver and posted a career-best total, and Kolbi Ferguson made the biggest ever clean and jerk by any American below the super-heavyweights – but Asian athletes still filled the top three places on total.

Alireza Nasiri from Iran, who failed with his first and last attempts, was very impressive on the others, finishing second on 185-233-418 in his first year out of the juniors. His 21st birthday is next month.

Shahzadbek Matyakubov from Turkmenistan, 22, has looked capable of something special for a while and today was the day. The Asian Games silver medallist jumped 15kg after missing his second clean and jerk and made the lift for third place on 187-230-417.

Rodriguez was fourth on 194-222-416, and only those four of the 32 athletes across three sessions registered a bigger total than the 95kg champion Karlos Nasar.

Chen Po-Jen from Chinese Taipei won snatch bronze from the B Group and finished fifth on 191-219-410. Chen beat his previous best total by 17kg and, after nine bombouts in senior international events, made five from six for the first time in four years.

Chen had expected improvement, having said before lifting, “In the past, getting overly nervous would cause technical errors on the platform. I’ve solved that through mental adjustments and changes to my training routine.”

Ferguson was seventh on 170-227-397, missing twice in snatch. “This is only the beginning, we’ve ticked the first box and I’m very happy and thankful,” he said. “I felt comfortable.”

Liu made 180-225-405 in sixth place, also from the B Group. The weight changes in the heavyweight category – 109kg for Tokyo, 102kg for Paris, and now 110kg for Los Angeles – have caused problems for Liu and Djuraev, and this time the 8kg hike suits Djuraev but not Liu.

Djuraev was “on a diet for a long time and under a lot of stress” at 102kg. Now he feels he is at the perfect weight and has said he wants to prove it by making a 245kg clean and jerk in competition, having done it in training.

Liu lifted lighter before and found it a struggle even at 102kg, although he peaked at the right time to win in Paris, where he became the first man from China ever to win an Olympic gold weighing more than 100kg.

He weighed in 9kg light at the Asian Games and 7kg light at the Asian Championships in 2023, as well as 3kg light at this year’s Asian Championships. Liu won every time regardless.

Today he weighed in at 107.9kg, and failed with a final clean and jerk on 231kg that might have won a medal. There has been no statement from the team about his overall fitness, and he is entered for the IWF Qualifier in Qatar in December.

It is worth looking back at what both men said in Paris after Liu won gold and Djuraev silver.

Liu said, “At the start I was comfortable (putting on weight). When I got to 98 it stopped so I had to stuff a lot of things into my stomach. If I didn’t eat enough meals my weight went down.

“I had a lot of fat and had to do a lot of cardio, running and cycling. It was like torture. I was weighed every Wednesday and I called Thursday ‘Death Thursday’ because that was when I had to work so hard to lose the fat. I shed a lot of tears. It’s hard to describe the pain at the time. But I made it through.”

Djuraev had to lose weight rather than gain it, and even had a spell in the super-heavyweights.

“It was difficult to lose so much weight, and that is why I have silver not gold,” he said.  “Maybe the weight categories will change again next time (for LA) and I will get the result.”