It was the last day at this year’s European Championships in Yerevan, Armenia, where the weightlifting world got to see impressive performances once again. First and foremost, Lasha Talakhadze showed that he continues to be a force in the men’s open weight class. The Georgian scored his five attempts – he skipped his last one in the clean and jerk – and gave his competitors no chance with 222 kg in the snatch and 252 kg in the clean and jerk and thus a total of 474 kg.
Lasha Talakhadze with 252 kg in the clean and jerk remained far behind his world record (267 kg), but it was enough for gold.
The other medals in this category all went to the host country Armenia. Three times silver was won by Varazdat Lalayan (212; 250; 462), three times bronze went to Simon Martirosyan (195; 245; 440).
British Campbell keeps her nerve
In the women’s open weight class the fight for the medals turned out to be a bit more exciting. In the snatch, Georgia’s Anastasiia Hotfrid first set the pace with 117 kg and secured the gold medal in the first Olympic discipline. The Ukrainian Valentyna Kisil (211 kg) took second place, bronze went to the Turkish Melike Gunal (210 kg).
In the second Olympic discipline, however, the tide turned. After Emily Campbell from Great Britain had only been able to score her third attempt in the snatch with 110 kg, she kept her nerve and convinced in the clean and jerk. The 28-year-old only started her competition when her competitors had already completed all their attempts. With a valid 136 kg from her first attempt she directly secured the gold medal in the clean and jerk and went one better with her second weight. Valid 143 kg also gave the 28-year-old the European title in the total (253 kg) just ahead of Hotfrid, who also won silver in the clean and jerk (135 kg). Bronze in the second discipline was won by Austria’s Sarah Fischer (134 kg), third place in the total went to Ukraine’s Kisil (244 kg).
Host country Armenia leads medal table
Now that all competitions of this year’s European Championships are in the books, Armenia has proven to be the strongest country. With twelve gold, eleven silver and 13 bronze medals, the host country leads the medal table ahead of Romania (9; 3; 2) and Georgia (8; 7; 2).
The German team was able to win one silver and two bronze medals at the European Championships and finished in 14th place in the medal table.
