Time for the first Weightlifting News Update of 2014.
Russia decided to change course and make the 2014 world championships the #1 priority (via).
Currently the team gathered for the first training camp in Chekhov.
Here is Artem Okulov with 140 x5 Snatches
And here is Vasiliy Polovnikov doing Clean Pulls with 2 pauses in Chekhov.
But back to the news.
- Last year Apti Aukhadov started in every competition. He needs to “recharge his batteries” and will skip Europeans. Remember that he will also move up to 94kg. The same goes for David Bedzhanyan, who will also skip the 2014 Europeans.
- Ruslan Albegov will most likely lift in the Europeans (without needing to qualify first). For worlds he has to qualify for a spot on the team like everybody else.
- Chingiz Mogushkov will also skip the Russian Cup and Europeans. He, like the others, will prepare for the Russian Championships (18-25 August in Grozny) to qualify for the worlds team.
- Alexandr Ivanov does not take part in the training camp, because he is busy with the torch relay for the winter Olympics. He can also skip the Russian Cup and go straight to Europeans (via).
- Dmitry Lapikov, Dmitry Berestov are planning to lift in the Europeans. For this they first need to lift in the Russian Cup (10-17 February) to qualify for the National team (via). Remember that Berestov recently lifted 190+220 at a regional competition in Moscow. This would be a “good enough result for Europeans” said Venkov, but not enough for worlds where you need to total around 425kg.
- Khadzhimurat Akkaev still has health problems and is not allowed to lift (via) Athletes have to pass in-depth medical examinations before joining the training camps. It was also mentioned in this article that these thorough medical examinations are important, “because usually 50% will have problems with the teeth.”
- Svetlana Tsarukayeva is still battling with her knee injury. After a year of unsuccessful treatment in Russia she now underwent surgery in Germany (via). Full rehabilitation will take 5-6 months.
Doping News
Farkhad Kharki became the 10th Kazakhstani weightlifter who tested positive in 2013 (via). The Turks were not impressed with that number.
Farkhad was the 2013 Universiade 62kg Gold medalist. Meanwhile Kazakhstan has paid the $500000 US fine to keep their weightlifting federation from getting banned for 4 years. Read about the “harsher” sanctions here.
Update 27.01.2014: 15 year old Ekaterina Stolyarenko became the 11th Kazakhstani weightlifter who tested positive in 2013 – also for stanozolol (via). She was 2013 Asian Youth Bronze medalist.
Other new arrivals on the sanctioned athletes list are (thanks Olympic Gent):
- European Junior Bronze Medalist -85 Oleksandr Pyelyeshenko (UKR)
- European Junior Silver Medalist -69 Shota Mishvelidze (GEO)
- European Junior Champion +105 Lasha Talakadze (GEO)
Some great news about folks who we haven’t seen on the platform in a while (Lapikov, Berestov)!
However, I can’t help but wonder why the Russian squad appears to be so invested in Bedzhanyan considering his mediocre performances at World’s and Euro’s. Do they not have anyone else in the pipeline? Any news on Ivanov?
Just added the news about Ivanov
Thank you Gregor!
“thorough medical examination are important, because surely the 50% usually will have problems with your teeth”… what is that supposed to mean?
Oops that sentence structure got mangled in the update process.
It means that 50% of athletes have some kind of problem with the teeth (and of course they don’t want to them to miss a competition because of this)
Yeah! 50% of the athletes have dental health problems??? lol what an odd way to fail a medical exam…
Not really. Teeth are really important in preventing injuries. In many sports teeth are a big factor in failling medical tests
if that were true england wouldn’t have many elite level weightlifters
England has no elite level weightlifters
I still don’t want Apti to go up to 94 without breaking any 85 records. Especially when he has to go against things like Ilya’s clean and jerk. He needs to put about 10kg on his snatch and 15 or 20 on his clean and jerk to be at the same dominant level he is as an 85 at 94. I’ve never really looked into lifters shifting bodyweight, but a 9kg gain doesn’t seem like it would give those kind of gains, at least not for a long while.
I think he’s just too thin at 85. A 9kg gain is pretty huge… I don’t know about WLing firsthand, but I compete in powerlifting, and I quickly became much more competitive once I gained weight. At 75kg I was not even ranked, but at 82.5 kgs I was the #4 raw squatter for 2012. But it just depends: I moved up to 90 kg and now I’m less competitive despite being stronger.
I think when a lifter looks as lanky as Apti does, it probably is a good option.
I saw Apti at the World’s in Wroclaw and he’s definitely not lanky! Very compact, 5ft 8in/1.73m tall at most, I’d reckon.
But he certainly doesn’t look chunky in ordinary clothes, not nearly as broad as he appears in the singlet, so I think going up to 94kg would be a natural move for him. Conversely his 85kg teammate, Artem Okulov, is very short, stocky and somewhat like a small bull in appearance, could not imagine him moving up any higher!
Ilya is moving to 105
Yeah, but his records are a serious hurdle! Probably one of the most significant after Reza’s clean and jerk. I like Ilya going to 105, he’s utterly dominated the 94s and can even do well against 105s at 94. Can’t wait for him to dominate there as well.
With his frame, it’s hard for him to stay as an 85. The 94s aren’t super competitive at the top right now with Ilya moving up, so he definitely could still be dominant. I think the chances of him setting any 85 records were pretty slim, except maybe the total record. He didn’t look anywhere close with the 219 C&J attempt at worlds.
Lovchev, Klokov, and any others? Much appreciated.
Would really like to see Lapikov back in action.
Klokov said he won’t compete in 2014. Nothing was said about Lovchev, so I assume he is just training as usual. Same for Muratov.
Oh man, I did not like the Akkaev news, does he still have Lower back problems?
They didn’t specify it, but that would be my guess as well.
Albegov will compete in the russian cup? I think he has enough potential to beat any of the iranians