Europe’s female weightlifter of the year Solfrid Koanda won another continental title on an entertaining day at the European Championships in Yerevan, her final outing before she cuts weight to lift in the Olympic 81kg category.
In her past three competitions Koanda has won two continental titles and become Norway’s first ever female world champion.
“Now I want gold at the Olympic Games,” she said after making career-best totals across the board.
The host nation Armenia had plenty to celebrate – and a large crowd did it very noisily – when they took an unassailable lead in the medals table with a day to go.
Hripsime Khurshudyan was third behind Koanda and there were victories for Garik Karapetyan and Samvel Gasparyan at 102kg and 109kg, plus a third-place podium finish for Petros Petrosyan alongside Gasparyan.
There was controversy when a record-breaking lift by Karapetyan barely touched the platform when he dropped it, and another talking point was the sensational Bulgarian teenager Karlos Nasar.
Since the 18-year old broke two world records at 89kg on Thursday nobody lifting at 96kg, 102kg or 109kg has bettered his 395kg total, which he made with a lift to spare.
The triple Olympic champion Kakhi Kakhiashvili, who is here with the Georgia team, knows how it feels to outlift a higher weight category because he did it at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.
“I have experience of this and I know it comes from hard work and dedication, and makes you very proud,” he said.
“If you go up to the next weight category when you have done this (outlifted them) you have already built a very good foundation to go and win again.
“Karlos Nasar has a really good future ahead of him.”
World champion Koanda went into the 87kg competition saying her goal was to retain her continental title before dropping down to 81kg for the final year of Paris qualifying, and she was more than halfway there when she weighed in at 83.86kg.
Koanda won in style despite missing her first snatch and weighing less than she has done in any previous international competition, making 117-155-272.
“When I had it overhead it was feeling like an easy weight, and I sort of lost focus,” she said.
“I was angry for the next one and didn’t even cheer when I made it – it gave me some fuel to say to the coaches ‘put whatever you want on the bar and I’ll do it.’
“Going up 7kg is a huge jump for me in the snatch but I am better in snatch now than ever, I feel very mentally strong.
“Previously in the snatch I was lacking confidence and now I’ve had different eyes looking at my technique, we’ve done a lot of video analysis, and also I’ve been training in Germany a lot, competing in the Bundesliga, and I feel that the Germans are very strong in the snatch.
“This year I’m a full-time athlete for the first time and I have more time to work on having the mindset of an athlete, to focus on one goal.
“That has improved my training quality a lot and it showed today.
“I feel very confident to be able to weigh less and lift more, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Anastasiia Manievska from Ukraine was second on 108-130-238 and Khurshudyan third on 107-120-227.
Fourth-placed Jessica Almeida put in a good performance for Portugal given that, at 29, she had never lifted in international competition before and Portugal had not competed at the European Championships for 24 years. Almeida, who lived in London for 20 years, made 96-118-214.
When Garik Karapetyan was born in 2003, his father Aleksander was in the middle of a spell of lifting for Australia that featured Commonwealth Games golds at Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006, having already won a World Championships medal for Armenia.
Karapetyan senior, long since back home in Armenia’s second city Gyumri, where Garik was born, told his son before he lifted, “Just believe in yourself.”
He claimed a sweep of European junior records and a world junior record in clean and jerk when he made 178-214-392, up 22kg on his previous best made at 96kg.
“I make you a promise – you will hear my name again,” said Karapetyan, the world and European junior champion.
Half of the top 10 at this weight at the IWF World Championships in Colombia in December were Europeans, the continent’s best top-10 representation in any weight category there.
Only two of them lifted here: the absentees were world bronze medallist Gasparyan, who moved up to 109kg with Bulgaria’s Vasil Marinov, and the Spaniard Marcos Ruiz who withdrew after the weigh-in.
Those who lifted at 102kg again were Arturs Plesnieks from Latvia and Irakli Chkheidze from Georgia, who finished second on 173-214-387.
Plesnieks, a Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist at 109kg, has been struggling with injury. Although he was within one lift of a medal he declined his final clean and jerk to avoid risking another setback, and finished fourth behind Tudor Bratu of Moldova on 170-204-374.
There was controversy over Karapetyan’s final snatch at 178kg when his shoe extended beyond the platform and he dropped the barbell right at the forward limit.
The Georgians thought it was a no-lift but jury president Denise Offerman explained that it had just touched the front edge of the platform and although very close it was a good lift, which was a unanimous verdict.
Chkeidze’s cousin also finished second to an Armenian winner in the 109kg.
Giorgi Chkheidze made 173-208-381, finishing 14kg behind Gasparyan – who had not lifted at 109kg since October 2019 – on 175-220-395. Third place went to Petrosyan on 165-214-379.
There were silver and bronze snatch medals for Bulgaria’s Marinov on 174kg and the Austrian Sargis Martirosjan – cheered by the crowd because he is originally from Armenia – on 173kg.
Zaza Lomtadze of Georgia took bronze in clean and jerk with 213kg.
By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games