Asian Weightlifting Championships, Day 6 Recap – Men’s 89 kg: Irani Ali Alipour Brings Gold for His Country Setting a High Bar at the Tournament 

Day 6 of the Asian Weightlifting Championships became memorable due to the solid competition between the lifters of the Men’s 89-kg weight class who presented us with a tense battle, impressive weights on the bar, unexpected leaders in both rounds, and the total ranking, which couldn’t be predicted till the very end.

Watch the video review of this Olympic weight division to know first who will lead the category and get a long-awaited opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Keep updated about the latest changes in the lifters’ ranking and the appearance of new winners who are willing to make their country stand out. 

Today eleven athletes were competing in the 89-kg weight class, with three lifters withdrawing from the battle. Let’s represent you with the most talented and promising athletes who are supposed to get winning spots during this continental tournament.

Top Athletes Review

Sarvarbek Zafarjonov from Uzbekistan, a silver medalist at the 2021 World Championships in Tashkent, a gold medalist at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, and a bronze holder at the 2020 Asian Championships in Tashkent;

Emil Moldodosov from Kyrgyzstan is a silver medalist at the 2022 Asian Weightlifting Championships held in Manama; and also won silver in the 7th Qatar Cup in Doha in 2023;

Yu Dong-Ju, a South Korean weightlifter who took gold at the 2021 World Championships in Tashkent and clinched another gold medal at the 2019 Asian Champs in Ningbo.

Snatch

The performance in the Snatch exercise started from 110 kg.

11: ASOMUDDIN SANGOV – 116 kg
10: YU DONGJU – 145 kg
9: SAFAA MAHMOOD – 150 kg
8: Amur Salim Al Khanjari – 153 kg
7: Alireza Abbaspour – 155 kg
6: PETROVICH Sergey – 156 kg
5: HSIEH MENG-EN – 157 kg
4: ESBERGENOV NURSULTAN – 157 kg

On this contest day, 54% of all attempts were successful which is a below-average rate.

Top 3 leaders’ results

Now let’s analyze the Top 3 lifters’ performance:

🥉Moldodosov Emil – 162 kg
🥈Ali Alipour – 163 kg
🥇ZAFARJONOV SARVARBEK – 167 kg

Moldodosov Emil from Kyrgyzstan secured bronze by lifting 157 kg on the first try which resulted in success. Then he lifted 162 kg on the second attempt confidently but failed to cope with 165 kg on the third attempt. Today’s result was four kilos less than his Snatch at the 2022 Asian Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain.

Irani athlete Ali Alipour did 163 kg today and got the silver medal. He didn’t manage to lift 155 kg on the first attempt, the second try was 2 kilos more, 157 kg that he lifted successfully, and the third attempt of 163 kg brought him second place in the category.

Uzbekistani weightlifter Zafarjonov Sarvarbek became the winner in the Snatch. All his attempts were successful: 160 kg on the first try, 164 kg – on the second attempt, and the culminating point was winning 167 kg. He showed a 1 kilo better result compared to his previous lift of 166 kg at the World Championships in Tashkent.

After watching the performance of eleven athletes in the 89-kg weight class, we can claim that half of the lifters demonstrated two attempts with red lights. It showed us a below-average rate for the Snatch exercise compared to the performance of the same category at the World Championships in Riyadh.

Only two lifters, namely Asomuddin Sangov and Zafarjonov Sarvarbek, performed all three lifts successfully. While one athlete from the United Arab Emirates Issa Rajab Mohammed Murad Alblooshi withdrew from the competition. 

Clean & Jerk

The contest in the Clean & Jerk discipline started with a weight of 140 kg. 

10: ASOMUDDIN SANGOV – 147 kg
9: PETROVICH Sergey – 183kg
8: ESBERGENOV NURSULTAN – 185 kg
7: Alireza Abbaspour – 187 kg
6: Moldodosov Emil – 190 kg
5: HSIEH MENG-EN – 190 kg
4: ZAFARJONOV SARVARBEK – 195 kg

51 % of all attempts in this exercise were successful which is a below-average rate.

Top 3 leaders’ results

Let’s describe the performance of the Top 3 lifters:

🥉Amur Salim Al Khanjari – 196 kg
🥈Ali Alipour – 200 kg
🥇YU DONGJU – 201 kg

The bronze medalist became Omani lifter Amur Salim Al Khanjari who lifted 192 kg at the first attempt successf, then ordered 196 kg resulting in success, but didn’t manage to lift 199 kg on the last try.

Ali Alipour from Iran became a silver medalist in this session due to the result of 200 kg. He started with a weight of 191 kg he lifted easily, then moved up to 200 kg which brought him second spot, while failed to lift 202 kg on the third attempt.

Yu Dong-Ju from South Korea reigned the weight division in Clean & Jerk: he lifted one kilo more than his opponent, enabling him to win the gold medal. He lifted 190 kg on the first attempt, 195 kg on the second try, and finished with 201 kg. Thus, all his attempts were successful.

Unlike the Snatch round, here we have four athletes with doble no-lifts, while two lifters performed all attempts clearly without failure. Two participants withdrew from competing in this round, the Emirati and Iraqi representatives.

The same situation with successful lifts: two athletes made all attempts with success, namely Asomuddin Sangov and Yu Dong-Ju. Nevertheless, the overall rate was below average compared to the weight and percentage ranking during the World Championships in Riyadh.

Total Results

1. Ali Alipour – 363 kg
2. ZAFARJONOV SARVARBEK – 362 kg
3. Moldodosov Emil – 352 kg
4. Amur Salim Al Khanjari – 349 kg
5. HSIEH MENG-EN – 347 kg
6. YU DONGJU – 346 kg
7. ESBERGENOV NURSULTAN – 342 kg
8. Alireza Abbaspour – 342 kg
9. PETROVICH Sergey – 339 kg
10. ASOMUDDIN SANGOV – 339 kg

The bronze medalist of this intensive competition was Moldodosov Emil from Kyrgyzstan who resulted with 352 kg which was 10 kilos less compared to the second place.

Zafarjonov Sarvarbek from Uzbekistan got silver due to his overall result of 362 kg. Just one-kilo gap was between him and the winner. However, he appeared to be stronger than Alipour by four kilos in the Snatch exercise.

Ali Alipour from Iran became a winner with a total of 363 kg. It needs to be mentioned that the category’s leaders were competing equally, with a small weight gap in between.

Having watched the performance of the Men’s 89-kg weight category, we can conclude that this battle was a decent competition of the strongest lifters in this weight class. Nobody wanted to fall behind their opponents as the stakes are rising for getting the desired quotas for the Olympic Games in Paris.

The competition was full of successful lifts, new personal bests, and impressive weights on the bar, as well as we witnessed some athletes couldn’t focus on their performance, which’s why they failed to achieve their goals for this competition day.

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