Quick update from the IWF (via).
As was discussed on the latest Two Doctors Episode, here are the new bodyweight categories for women.
Update: Here is the official 2017 IWF Rule Book
90kg and +90kg.
What happens to existing World Records?
Technical Rule modification accepted by the IWF EB: the new women bodyweight category is 90kg,+90kg and 75kg,+75kg for youth #genderbalance
— International Weightlifting Federation (@iwfnet) September 25, 2016
They also confirmed getting rid of the bodyweight rule.
Technical Rule modification accepted by the IWF Executive Board: bodyweight advantage abolished in ranking pic.twitter.com/TDKHkTlcqg
— International Weightlifting Federation (@iwfnet) September 25, 2016
So how will ties be decided now?
Unless they also decided to change the criterias below here is how ties will be decided.
From the 2013-2016 IWF Rulebook (PDF) Section:
6.8.2 Factors to decide the classification of athletes in Snatch and Clean & Jerk:
- best result – highest first; if identical, then:
bodyweight – lowest first; if identical, then:- best result’s attempt(s) number – lowest first; if identical, then:
- previous attempt(s) – lowest first; if identical, then:
- lot number – lowest first
So with 2. gone it’s now about attempt numbers?
So without the bodyweight rule, does it now go to who lifts the total first? If so, that’s is terrible.
I’m impartial but the whole point was to remove ties and make it easier for the spectator. ~”The person who lifts the most wins”.
nobody is going to take a weight that will tie for the top total. since they know that they would win silver since their attempt was after the other lifter’s attempt. so this scenario should be rare.
A 15kg jump between the 75kg and 90kg classes feels like too much. I think it would have been better to rejig the classes slightly so you have two categories in the 50kg, 60kg and 70kg range.
e.g. 48, 53, 58, 63, 68, 73, 78, 78+
I actually like the changes.
There is no real reason why the increases should be linear. Bodyweight distribution in a population is not distributed equally. I would assume it’s something like a normal distribution.
The only category I don’t like is the 105 kg. That is definitely too light for heavyweight. IMO we could see beautifully big lifts if it was 110 kg again. Especially after I watched Klokov’s 2005 Russian champs video. He did 202,5-240 with 109,5 BW but he was significantly weaker at the world champs in Doha where he had to cut for 105 kg. 192-227? Come on! Who knows what he could have done in the 110 kg. He was just a young boy then.
I find it actually more confusing to the spectators to abolish the bodyweight rule. So it’s the attempt number that decides it. If that’s the same, then the LOWEST previous attempt wins?? Why? To encourage big jumps? I would have probably set it at highest previous attempt wins to award more kg lifted total.
Anyway, this actually benefits China’s current team as is since in all the competitions of Rio, China never incurred the bodyweight rule to win, neither was she ever in a position to do so. But Lu Xiaojun was defeated on it and Wu Jingbiao was beaten on it in Houston. Long and Wu are heavier than Om (Wu is too heavy; he often clean and jerks 170 in training but cannot get near after weight loss, measuring in at 55.98 or something like that.) Chen Lijun had to lose so much weight that he experienced cramps in both is arm and leg and couldn’t even take a decent attempt. Shi is heavier than Ismailov. Lu Xiaojun lost on bodyweight. Tian Tao is heavier than Rostami. In general, China’s current top weightlifting athletes are all on the heavier side, with huge training numbers hoping to use that to compensate for bigger bodyweight drops. This is a changing picture since new talents appear and old athletes retire frequently, but as it is now, it makes team China’s life a little but easier.
It’s the attempt number in case they hit the same weight…
But the whole point is to encourage 1kg jumps and avoid having to fall back to these other deciding factors in the first place. There is little incentive to hit the exact same weight as your competitor.
It will be interesting to see how this will impact the dynamics of a competition.
The change in weigh categories were discussed here before. Some of the us on this forum believed that IWF would look at stat/numbers in the past few years and adjust weight categories. I advocated natural numbers for men and female lifters. In most countries in the world that use metric system 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 ….. is what people remember and try to weight in. Not one woman (athlete) wakes up in the morning and says I wish I was under 53kg!
the +90 kg and +105 tie breaks should be body weight difference or it would be a farce IMO.
IWF should have reinstated 4th attempt for the WR.
I like this 90 kg category! I was worried they wouldn’t be ballsy enough and make something like 83 or 85 kg,which would have been to low in my opinion. I didn’t see the problem winning with virtue of BW so that one is not clear for me.Now it’s too much work of numbers – not really good in the heat of competition.
So, no reset of all weight categories and wiping out all current records, after all… Status quo suits everyone. Sorry for the off-topic comment.
Who knows it could still happen. The actual updating of the rules won’t happen until the Congress at next month’s YWC in Malaysia. I imagine they are going to wait until the IOC retesting if fully complete and all results are finalised by the IOC before they even consider it though, which could be months from now.
Why would you want to change the world records or the weight categories? I think it was already silly that the original categories were changed twice in the ’90-s. It sort of made the whole thing “weightless”. I wasn’t against a change but doing it twice took away the seriousness of it. Are we gonna change the categories in every 20 years now?
I like the new body weight classes but the new tie breaker rules eliminating the winner by lighter body-weight is senseless. That rule should stay in p;ace and then the other tie breaker apply in case of further tie situation. The elimination of of the winner by lighter body-hadweight brings needless complication to the competition and confusion to the tactics. It is fine the way it is. Old men who are not athletes and sit on their brains too long get affected by lack of oxygen and come up with many stupid rules. Just wait until lifters and coaches start complaining. Same bullshit happened in 1972 with the Press when the judges instead of tightening the rules, relaxed them so much in previous years that inconsistency in judging was the order of the day and the IWF found it easier and less “:controversial” to get rid of the Press. To this day, the only benefit has been making the competition shorter and eliminate many lifters from the sport and a beautiful, popular and powerful lift was gone forever. So I ask: what is the real and practical benefit of the new tie breakers other than potential confusion during competition? Sometimes bureaucrats just make rules as an end into itself to justify their positions and find answers to problems that do not exist.
The practical benefit is supposed to be fewer ties to break, as Gregor has pointed out.
To be clear, there are no new tie breakers. They removed the body weight rule. All the others were already in place.
It might seem silly at first, but when you think about, it makes a lot of sense. If lifter A makes a certain weight, then lifter B knows that they must lift 1 kg more to beat them. It will force athletes to actually try to win instead of going for the tie, which was the case when you happened to be the lighter lifter.
I think -120kg or -125kg Class for Men would also be sensible for the smaller SHWs.
It makes too much sense and good 125 kilos guys could embarrass the no limit super-heavies. Also, I would like to see 110 kilos instead of 105 kilos class. The IWF likes to play musical chairs with the weight classes.
They should have gotten rid of the no press-out rule instead, especially in the snatch.
Without a press-out rule, a floating rack clean & jerk is a snatch.
Must receive above top of head, cannot stand until elbows locked. There are just too many unwarranted instances of people getting red-lighted for a small bend or elbow wobble for a rule that was only used to distinguish the jerk from the press when the press was an event. What’s wrong with persisting and using a little arm strength in weightlifting? It’s not like there’s an advantage to receiving a weight with bent elbows.
The elbows are becoming as hard to judge as the Press was in the early 1970’s. Some get away with murder and some can do no wrong depending on reputation of the lifter and the competence of the judge. It has become inconsistent even with the technical jury reviewing a controversial lift.
Removing the body weight favors a heavy snatcher. No?