Samvel Gasparyan (109 kg) became a two-time European Champion.
2021 European Champion and 2022 World Championship bronze medalist Samvel Gasparyan won the European Champion title by lifting the total weight of 395 kg.
The second representative of Armenia in the same weight category, Petros Petrosyan, became the bronze medalist with the total result of 379 kg.
The representative of Georgia Giorgi Chkheidze became the Vice-Champion of Europe – 381 kg.
Garik Karapetyan won the third gold medal for Armenia at European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan and set a European youth record.
The representative of Armenia Garik Karapetyan (102 kg) took the total weight of 392 kg (178+214) and became the European champion, passing a Georgian athlete by 5 kg.
The representative of Georgia Irakli Chkheidze became the Vice-Champion of Europe with 387 kg (173+214). The third place was taken by Tudor Bratun from Moldova – 374 kg (170+204).
Armenian athletes Davit Hovhannisyan and Ara Aghanyan earned gold and silver medals, respectively, at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan on Friday.
Hovhannisyan lifted a total of 377kg (172+205) in the 96kg event to clinch the European gold. He also won small gold medals in the snatch and the clean and jerk exercises.
Aghanyan became a silver medalist with a combined total of 364kg (165+199). He also claimed small bronze and silver medals.
The European Weightlifting Championship continues at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex.
David Hovhannisyan (96 kg) became a two-time European Champion, Ara Aghanyan – a two-time Vce-Champion.
Hovhannisyan with the total weight of 377 kg (172+205) won the gold medal.
The second representative of Armenia in the same weight category, Ara Aganyan, showed the total result of 364 kg (165+199).
The President of the Turkish Weightlifting Federation has spoken glowingly about the efforts of Armenia in hosting the European Weightlifting Championships – a week after speculation that the team would withdraw.
The speculation followed an incident at the Opening Ceremony on April 14 that made global news, when an Armenian ran from the crowd, grabbed the Azerbaijan flag from the young woman holding it during the parade of nations and set it alight.
Azerbaijan’s Government ordered its team to withdraw and fly home, citing security fears after the "barbaric act".
Turkey, like Azerbaijan, has no diplomatic relations with Armenia after conflicts and killings that date back more than 100 years.
"The Azerbaijan team went but we stayed," said Talat Unlu, whose team has so far won more medals than any nation except the hosts.
"For a weightlifting championship this is the best I have seen, the best competition hall, training area, warm-up.
"We can’t deny because of one miserable thing the good organisation that the Armenian Federation did.
"Here the security are taking very good care of us and until now we have had no problems.
"Of course there will be some protesters, that is normal, it’s something that’s in human nature.
"From the first day till now there is only one disgusting thing that happened, and that is the burning of the Azerbaijan flag.
"Everything has been perfect since the Opening Ceremony."
In February Turkey will host the 2024 European Championships, which like this event are an important Olympic qualifier, and later next year Armenia is hoping to host the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Yerevan.
The IWF Board will select a host from bidders – Peru, Venezuela, Albania, Bahrain and Armenia – in June.
"Armenia have not had problems before (in Turkey) and will not in Antalya," said Unlu.
"Of course there will be security to take care of them.
"They can walk around Antalya with their uniform, with their flag, and they won’t face any problem."
Asked if Turkey would be happy to return to Armenia for the IWF World Championships, if it is chosen as host, Unlu said: "This is a decision for IWF.
"If they make such a decision we will respect that, of course we will come here, no problem.
"I have one condition though: we don’t want an escort, we just want to be like the other teams. Let them treat us like all the other teams."
Karen Giloyan, Armenia’s deputy minister of education, science, culture and sport, said: "We are very pleased to hear that Turkey has been impressed with the competition, and has felt safe here.
"We look forward to competing in Antalya, and we hope to see Turkey here again next year."
Many athletes, coaches and federation officials have joined Unlu in making favourable comments about Armenia’s efforts in hosting the European Championships for the first time – although there was a complaint from Cyrille Tchatchet, the British member of the IWF Athletes Commission.
After lifting in front of a big, noisy crowd in the men’s 96 kilograms yesterday, Tchatchet said the overall organisation of the event had been very good but the crowd’s behaviour was unacceptable.
Tchatchet said the fans have cheered failures by other athletes that improve the Armenians’ medal chances – they have done so several times, most notably for Turkish and Italian contenders – and make too much noise when athletes are preparing to lift.
"This is not weightlifting," he said.
"It should be like tennis, we need silence when we are preparing."
The France coach Arnaud Ferrari said: "We are very happy to be here, because in Armenia weightlifting is the sport number one.
"The welcome is very warm and organisation is very beautiful, Olympic-standard."
Danish coach Anders Bendix said the organisation was "the best I have ever seen" and told an Armenian interviewer: "I hope you get World Championships next year, I’d really enjoy to come back."
The top two officials at the European Weightlifting Federation, President Antonio Conflitti and general secretary Milan Mihajlovic, both praised the level of organisation in Armenia, as did IWF vice-president Attila Adamfi from Hungary and Board member Florian Sperl from Germany – although they were all unimpressed by the flag incident.
"I don’t remember such a level of organisation in other tournaments… I think this is the best Championship I have ever seen," said Conflitti.
"Although the event started with challenges, the conclusion of all participants is that the European Championship is excellent," added Mihajlovic.
"I sincerely appreciate Armenia for all their efforts and for hosting such a wonderful event. We hope for more events in Yerevan."
Read more on the flag-burning controversy and its fallout in today's blog from Brian here.
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1136211/turkey-praise-armenia-euro-weightlifting
Weightlifters from host nation Armenia were roared on to the podium by a big crowd at the European Championships here in Yerevan.
Davit Hovhannisyan and Ara Aghanyan, first and second last year in Albania, repeated the feat in front of their own fans, helped by a slew of red lights for rivals from France and Italy.
The 96kg result takes the host nation up to second place behind Romania in the medals table and with several more chances over the weekend they look certainties to finish top.
Another certainty is a packed house at the Karen Demirchyan Complex on Saturday and Sunday.
More than 4,000 tickets have been sold for the final men’s super-heavyweight session of the Championships, which features multiple champion and world record holder Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia and the young Armenian challenger Varazdat Lalayan.
Hovhannisyan led his team-mate by 7kg in the snatch and stretched the advantage to 13kg, finishing on 172-205-377, with Aghanyan on 165-199-364.
Between them they declined three attempts, having seen off all challengers.
Cristiano Ficco from Italy made only two good lifts for third place on 165-198-363, ahead of the snatch silver medallist from Turkey, Hakan Kurnaz in fourth on 361kg and Britain’s Cyrille Tchatchet in fifth on 350kg.
Both French athletes, Redon Manushi and Romain Imadouchene – fourth at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships last December – bombed out in the snatch.
In the other medal event of the day, the women’s 81kg, Iryna Dekha from Ukraine won a sweep of gold medals to claim her fourth continental title.
For the third session in a row the winner finished way clear: for Karlos Nasar and Marie Fegue yesterday the margin was 21kg and 27kg, and for 26-year-old Dekha it was 23kg after she made 123-135-258.
Dekha has always thrived in the snatch by comparison with clean and jerk, having bombed out twice with three failures in the latter part of a competition – including at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Here she made her first clean and jerk but missed the last two, which is exactly what happened in December at the first Paris 2024 qualifier, the IWF World Championships, where Dekha won snatch gold then dropped to fourth place.
Turkey won four more medals and it has 21, more than any other nation after seven days.
Dilara Narin finished second on 101-134-235 and Sara Yenigun on 131kg.
Elina Erighina of Moldova was third on total with104-130-234.
By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games
https://iwf.sport/2023/04/22/yerevan-day-7-armenia-starts-its-move-towards-top-at-european-championships/
17:14,
YEREVAN, 21 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 21 April, USD exchange rate up by 0.26 drams to 387.47 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.07 drams to 424.82 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 4.76 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.88 drams to 479.77 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 223.44 drams to 25003.97 drams. Silver price up by 8.31 drams to 316.42 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
17:19,
YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. An electronic database of the survivors and victims of the Armenian Genocide will be created in Armenia, the Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Harutyun Marutyan said at a press conference.
“The creation of the electronic database is among our priority tasks, and the main goal is to [record] the names and biographical data of the survivors and victims of the genocide in the database,” Marutyan said.
The process is carried out with state support.
The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute has applied to the State Science Committee for next steps.
The process could take 10-15 years, according to Marutyan.
Now, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute is also working in direction of introducing the Armenian Genocide History subject for high school and university students.
17:22,
YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of Armenia has denied the claims of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense that a military convoy of the Armed Forces of Armenia, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, has entered Nagorno Karabakh.
“All claims by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry regarding the transfer of personnel, weapons and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Armenia are also false,” the Ministry of Defense of Armenia added in a statement.
18:03,
YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. In March of this year, a historical record of jobs was registered in Armenia: 706 thousand, ARMENPRESS reports, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in his final speech during the discussion of the report on the progress and results of the 2022 implementation of the Armenian Government’s Action Plan 2021-2026 in the National Assembly.
He noticed that in general, the tendency of the opposition partners was to show that the report presented by the Government is a document in which the achievements highlighted in it are not felt by the citizens of Armenia. However, the Prime Minister did not agree with that assessment. "On the contrary, this is the case that any of the points we mentioned cannot fail to be felt by the Armenian citizens. With 2,500 km of roads built, overhauled and renovated in the last 5 years, a citizen cannot fail to travel and notice. The citizens of the Republic of Armenia cannot fail to notice the additional health services they received in the health institutions," said Pashinyan, adding that these are not numbers, but are people who actually received these services at the expense of the budget.
He also emphasized that a certified teacher cannot fail to notice that his salary has doubled. "And we all cannot fail to notice that there is a teacher in Armenia who receives a salary of 400-450 thousand drams. 29,000 Armenian citizens cannot fail to notice that they received 35 billion AMD from the government in 2022 to buy apartments. Scientists cannot fail to notice that their salary has increased by 66-166 percent," Pashinyan noted.
He also noted that more than 700,000 workers cannot fail to notice that their average salary in 2022, compared to 2021, has increased by 31,528 AMD.
Referring to the statement of the opposition that thousands of citizens are sleeping hungry, Pashinyan said that such a thing can and does exist. "But we say there are thousands of vacancies in the labor market. We have a new historical record: 706 thousand jobs, the previous one was 704 thousand. In March of this year, compared to March of last year, we have 51 thousand more salaries. These are the people who, perhaps, don't sleep hungry anymore because they work and get paid," said Pashinyan.
In addition, the gross salary fund has doubled compared to March 2019, that is, citizens working in Armenia received twice as much salary in March this year than in 2019.