Yang Qiuxia (Photo by UWW/Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia)
China still has a chance to catch North Korea at the top of the World Weightlifting Championships medal table after a 1-2 finish in the women’s 77kg category in Ningbo. It was a good day for Russia too, with a place on the podium for 18-year-old Varvara Kuzminova.
The host nation has three more medal chances while North Korea has no entries in the heaviest categories. Lui Huanhua, who is in the 110kg B Group on Friday, has to win a medal to keep China in contention.
At halfway yesterday Peng Cuiting was in the lead after twice breaking Olivia Reeves’s snatch world record. But her team-mate Yang Qiuxia went clear in clean and jerk to claim the title on 120-145-265. Snatch specialist Cuiting was second with a six-from-six 126-136-262 and Sara Samir from Egypt was third on 114-144-258.
Qiuxia, 24 moved up in weight this year. She was third behind Reeves at 71kg at the 2024 World Championships.
Samir, a double Olympic medallist, missed her first two attempts in clean and jerk. She made no mistake with the third one, knocking Maria Mena from Colombia out of third place on total and the American Mattie Rogers out of third place in clean and jerk.
Rogers, 32, was lifting in her tenth World Championships at a seventh different weight. She came so close to a medal, battling for her final clean and jerk on 143kg but losing it, then seeing Samir deny her.
“I’d shifted my mindset to not being in the fight for medals and I was at peace with that,” said Rogers, one of her nation’s most popular lifters. “Then, after my second clean and jerk I was really excited to still be in the race.
“I had it on the bar to go for a medal and it’s hard not to be bummed. But this ties my international total at this weight so I can’t get mad.
“I’m going to do this Olympic cycle (her fourth) for me only, I’m going to be calm, not nervous like I usually am. I’m proud of my attitude and I’m going to enjoy every meet because there’s not many left. I feel old!”
Mena, in her first World Championships, took clean and jerk bronze in fourth place on 113-141-254 and Rogers was seventh on 111-140-251.
Kuzminova skipped the recent European Juniors to focus solely on the World Championships, where she carried the burden of being Russia’s best medal prospect. “In psychological terms, it has never been so hard,” she said of her preparations.
The World Juniors bronze medallist improved her best international total by 16kg in fifth place on 115-138-253, failing with an attempt at the junior snatch world record on 117kg. Kuzminova made five good lifts and her team-mate Anastasiia Romanova made all six attempts for eighth place from the B Group on 111-135-246.
Russia’s women have a remarkable success rate in Ningbo, with only five no-lifts in 42 attempts by seven athletes.
Some big names were missing yesterday. The Olympic champion Reeves has had a back injury and will delay her return until the IWF Qualifier in Qatar in December or later. The African champion Liadi Taiwo from Nigeria is due to start her qualifying campaign in Doha, while the Oceania champion Seine Stowers from Samoa, who has held youth and junior world records, will wait until next year.
China also has more to offer at this weight. He Renxiu won at the Asian Games as well as the national championships at 77kg. She, too, is entered for Qatar.
