IWF Grand Prix II, Day 7 Recap – Women’s 71 kg: American Olivia Reeves Outshines the Podium with New Junior World Record in Snatch

Day 7 of the World Qatar Cup continues to Impress us with remarkable moments, ever-tough battle, ordering heavier openers, thus increasing the stakes for victory and enhancing the competition.

Today female weightlifters were highly determined to gain their big goals trying to defeat their contenders with the maximum possible weight gaps. The battle in the 71-kg category highlighted the competitive spirit prevailing on the podium, underlying the continuous quest for triumph at the Grand Prix II.

Athletes’ Presentation

With the 12 female athletes on the starting list, we’re presenting the Top 6 lifters who are expected to show immaculate performances with competitive weights on the barbell. So, here are the Top names of the Women’s 71-kg division:

Liao Guifang, the current World and Asian Champion who set two world records in the process;

Loredana Toma, a two-time World Champion and five-time European Champion, holds the current world record in Snatch;

Giulia Miserendino, the 2023 European Championships silver medalist;

Olivia Reeves, the 2023 World Championships and Pan Am Championships bronze medalist, and a Champion of the 2023 Pan Am Games;

Katherine Vibert, the Olympic silver medalist, World Champion, two-time Pan American champion, as well as Junior World champion;

And Song Kuk Hyang, the 2023 Asian Games champion.

Snatch

The performance in the Snatch exercise started from 95 kg.

• 6: TOMA Loredana-Elena – 108 kg
• 5: SANCHEZ PERINAN Mari Leivis -110 kg
• 4: VIBERT Katherine Elizabeth – 112 kg

On this contest day, 67 % of all attempts were successful, which is an above-average rate.

Top 3 Leaders’ Results

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

• 🥇SONG Kuk Hyang  – 120 kg
• 🥈LIAO Guifang – 116 kg
• 🥉REEVES Olivia Lynn – 115 kg

Olivia Reeves won the bronze medal in this session by lifting 115 kg. The first lift was 106 kg, the second – 113 kg, and the last resulted in 115 kg. By the way, it’s her personal best in this session and what’s more it became the new Junior World Record! To compare her previous Snatches: she performed her previous best 114-kg Snatch at the Pan American Games in 2023 that brought her gold. But, at the Worlds in Riyadh she did 111 kg by getting a bronze medal.

The second place went to Liao Guifang who snatched 116 kg. She did the first attempt at 108 kg, by pushing 113 kg on the second try, and finished her performance successfully with 116 kg. This time she showed 4 kilos less compared to her performance at the World and Asian Championships in Riyadh and Jinju this year. However, there was only 1 kilo cushion between her and the third place.

The gold medal went to Song Kuk Huang who finally snatched 120 kg at the third attempt. She managed to lift 3 kilos more than her previous Snatch result at the 2023 Asian Games.

Snatch Results:

Song Kuk Huang piped her opponents from the second and third places by 4 kg and 5 kg respectively. Liao Guifang finished second today resulting with unfulfilled initial ambitions to surpass her contender, but today she had to settle for the second place.

American Olivia Reeves and Katherine Vibert were going almost head-to-head, but Vibert failed to snatch 115 kg at the third attempt and she ranked fourth with 112 kg. So, it gave a chance for Reeves to become third and set the Junior World Record.

Colombian Sanchez Perinan Mari Leivis was fifth with a Snatch of 110 kg, 2 kilos less than her lift at the 2023 Pan Ams.

Romanian Toma Loredana-Elena, aka Tomanator, and being a World and European Champion, didn’t show impressive lifts and resulted with 108 kg becoming sixth. She failed to improve her prior gold-win Snatch at the Europeans in Yerevan with just 2 kilo margin that unfortunately wasn’t enough today.

Clean & Jerk

The contest in the Clean & Jerk discipline started with a weight of 124 kg.

• 6: CHEN Wen-Huei – 137 kg
• 5: SARNO Vanessa- 141 kg
• 4: VIBERT Katherine Elizabeth – 142 kg

67 % of all attempts in this exercise were successful which is an above-average rate.

Top 3 Leaders’ Results

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

• 🥇SONG Kuk Hyang – 149 kg
• 🥈LIAO Guifang – 148 kg
• 🥉REEVES Olivia Lynn – 147 kg

Olivia Reeves secured third place by jerking 147 kg on the third attempt. Her first jerk was 140 kg, then she added up the weight 4 kilos and pushed 144 kg successfully. The final try was 147 kg that was her personal best in the career as she improved her previous Clean & Jerk by 3 kg.

The silver medalist in this battle became Liao Guifang with a result of 148 kg on the third attempt. Today she started from 140 kg, moving to 145 kg, and the third lift was 148 kg. All her lifts were successful showcasing her great power and technique. Looking back at her previous results in Clean & Jerk, today she repeated her result at the Asians in Jinju, but didn’t reach her World Record jerk of 153 kg she did in Riyadh.

Song Kuk Hyang became a gold winner with 149 kg as her best lift. Her first attempt was 146 kg, then she did 149 kg, but failed the last try of 154 kg. Today she made 1-kg less than her result at the 2023 Asian Games.

Clean & Jerk Results

Overall, the battle between the Top 3 athletes was stable, without great margins as all three resulted with 1 kilo difference between each other.

The fourth spot went to Katherine Vibert with the result of 142 kg. Sarno Vanessa from the Phillippines lifted 141 kg, who got a 4-kg cushion from the sixth place occupied by Taiwanese Chen Wen-Huei.

Total Results

• 🥇SONG Kuk Hyang – 269 kg
• 🥈LIAO Guifang – 264 kg
• 🥉REEVES Olivia Lynn – 262 kg
• 4 VIBERT Katherine Elizabeth – 254 kg
• 5 SARNO Vanessa- 249 kg
• 6 CHEN Wen-Huei – 243 kg

The gold medalist in the category was Song Kuk Hyang who did 269 kg overall. It was her best total result: she succeeded to improve it by 2 kilos since the Asian Games.

The silver holder was Chinese Liao Guifang who got 264 kg in a sum of two movements. It wasn’t her best total since she finished with 273 kg at the World Champs in Riyadh by setting a World Record.
American Olivia Reeves took bronze thanks to her final 262 kg, which became her career-best total – she showed 4-kg improvement compared to her prior best result she did at 2023 Pan American Games.

Final Points

Today’s performance in the Women’s 71-kg division proved that the competition is increasing with each championship and even some athletes that were expected to compete, decided to withdraw, or simply didn’t manage to show better lifts. The Chinese team remains in the leaders, but the American female lifters won’t give up and will push themselves hard to gain Top spots at the running list. 

Olivia Reeves and Katherine Vibert are bright specimens of ultimate resilience and desire to surpass contenders to make their country go up to the podium.

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