Iranian super-heavyweights win gold, silver at World Junior Championships

November 24, 2023 - 17:58

TEHRAN - Alireza Yousefi won the men’s super-heavyweights by a wide margin, and his team-mate Taha Nemati set a youth world record in second place to complete a strong finish by Iran at the World Junior Championships in Guadalajara.

The 1-2 finish in final event of the nine-day competition took Iran’s medal haul in the last three days to two golds and three silvers on total, moving them up to fourth place in the final table. The top three were the U.S., Mexico and Armenia.

Yousefi, unlike his rivals, has consistently gone far beyond the 400kg mark in his competitions. He was Youth Olympic Games champion in 2018, junior world champion last year on 416kg, and posted a career best 190-246-436 when fifth at the senior Asian Championships in May.

Yousefi declined his third snatch in making 180-240-420 in his final competition as a junior. If he had not missed his second clean and jerk, he would have had a shot at his own world record of 246kg. He held all three world records in the super-heavyweights at youth and junior level until Nemati took one of the youth records today.

Nemati, a 17-year-old who has won two Asian youth titles, did it with a snatch of 172kg, then went even better at 176kg. He added 21kg to his best total in making 176-205-381 despite failing with two clean and jerks, IWF.net reported.

Third place went to Vladimir Macura from Slovakia, 18, who made 168-191-359, well up on the numbers he made in twice winning bronze at the European Juniors. Slovakia became the 25th nation, of 44, to win a medal in Guadalajara. Kao Jia Hui from Chinese Taipei won clean and jerk bronze with 193kg.