Men’s 61 kg Division Recap – IWF European Weightlifting Championships 2024

Day 2 of the European Weightlifting Championships in Sofia showed us exciting lifting in the Men’s 61-kg weight category, where nine male athletes were performing in the first session of the European Champs.

This day became a day of triumph for the American lifter Hampton Morris as he succeeded in setting the American Junior and Senior record in Snatch of 126 kg.

Double Win for the Bulgarian Team and a New Record Set by American Morris

The US team participates in this Championships as a guest country. Since the USA won’t compete in the Pan American Championships in Venezuela because of the political situation, the IWF executive board allowed America to participate in this qualifying event.

Even though Hampton Morris resulted second in Snatch, first in Clean & Jerk, and first in totals, he wasn’t on the podium. Today this American lifter outshined his opponents by shattering the American Junior and Senior Record in Snatch of 126 kg. It looks obvious that he sets out seriously on the way to Paris.

Let’s meet the TOP 3 lifters who claimed the spotlight with exemplary lifts and amazing performances: 

• 🥇Marinov Gabriel (BUL) – 121-160-281
• 🥈Dimov Ivan (BUL) – 130-150-280
• 🥉Mishvelize Shota (GEO) – 125-147-272 

The winner in the category was Gabriel Marinov from Bulgaria who performed Snatch at 121 kg, Clean & Jerk at 160 kg, and 281 kg in total. 

The second place was occupied by his compatriot Ivan Dimov who did 280 kg in total, 130 kg in Snatch, and 150 kg in Clean & Jerk. 

The bronze medalist was Mishvelidze Shota from Georgia who snatched 125 kg, 147 kg in Clean & Jerk, and got a total of 272 kg.

Top Athletes’ Review

The 61-kg weight class winner Gabriel Marinov is a Bulgarian weightlifter who is a European Champion of 2024, and a bronze medalist at the 2022 European Championships in Tirana.

Speaking about the silver medalist, another Bulgarian lifter Ivan Dimov won the gold medal at the 2022 European Championships held in Tirana, and a bronze medalist at the European Championships in Yerevan. His personal best is 293 kg in total, 133 kg in Snatch, and 160 kg in Clean & Jerk he did at the World Championships in Riyadh.

The bronze holder became Mishvelidze Shota from Georgia won the silver medal at the 2021 World Championships in Tashkent, he’s also a two-time gold and tow-time silver medalist at the European Championships.

Snatch results:

Considering the Snatch performance, we can claim that overall the performance was good, just with several no-lifts on the third attempts, while one athlete bombed out.

• 🥇Dimov Ivan (BUL) – 130 kg
• 🥈Zalipskyi Pavlo (UKR) – 126 kg
• 🥉Mishvelidze Shota (GEO) – 125 kg

The Clean & Jerk session showed us quite impressive results: just several athletes had two no-lifts with the rest successful lifts. Here’s the list of Top 3 lifters who got medals in the exercise:

Clean & Jerk results:

• 🥇Marinov Gabriel (BUL) – 160 kg
• 🥈Iancu Valentin Ionadi (ROU) – 154 kg
• 🥉Dimov Ivan (BUL) – 150 kg

Another interesting fact about the performance of Hampton Morris: his lift of 173 kg in the C&J exercise was overturned by the jury. Moreover, he showed his personal best of a total of 126-171-297 which improved his Olympic ranking.

Keep following the next performances and new achievements in personal bests among the weightlifters from the weight classes of Group A that will perform in the next days of this European Champs.

Don’t miss the opportunity to know new winners and big names of the European qualifying event. Subscribe to our channels (on Instagram and YouTube) and follow all the updates for tomorrow’s competition day.