The International Weightlifting Federation named Kianoush Rostami 2016’s male Lifter of the Year.

The award is decided by a popular vote of fans.

Rostami won first place by a whopping twenty thousand votes, three times more than the second place Lasha Talakhadze from Georgia. Third place went to the Kazakh weightlifter Nijat Rahimov.

Thailand’s Sopita Tanasan won the award for female Lifter of the Year, beating out China’s Deng Wei and Hsu Shu-Ching in second and third places.

Deng lost by around 1,200 votes, while only fifty-five votes separated Deng and Hsu.

He won a gold medal in men’s 85 kg category at the 2016 Summer Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

A few days ago, Rostami was dropped from Iran weightlifting national team after not participating at training.

The Lifter of the Year election was initiated by the late Jenő Boskovics (Hungarian), the founding Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. After his death in 2010, World Weightlifting created a Challenge Trophy in Memoriam Jenő Boskovics.

The same Trophy – one for Men, one for Women – has been awarded annually ever since to the Best Male and Best Female Weightlifter of the World. Every year, the new names are engraved on the Trophies.