IWF Grand Prix II, Day 9 Recap – Women’s 81 kg: China’s Supremacy and New World Records Making History in Doha

The stakes and the tension are rising, as well as the weights on the barbell. Every lifter feels great responsibility and commitment to up their country higher the ranking. We’re getting closer to heavyweight divisions where athletes work with incredible weights, where there’s no place for a one-kilo cushion between the opponents.

Day 9 of the Qatar World Cup was full of tough battles and controversial moments, as again two Olympic categories gathered today to fight for the title. 11 female athletes showed their ultimate concentration and inner strength as no one wanted to lose focus on the major prize of the day – becoming a champion in the 81-kg category and raising their own chances for selection to the Olympics.

Watch the video till the end to know the new stars rising at the competition! Keep the pulse on the new records and personal bests set. Let’s go!

Athletes’ Presentation

In this Olympic weight class, we have 3 three main leaders, who pretend to be the strongest and also plan to secure their Olympic spots and run for the podium in Paris 2024. Let’s present our supposed leaders:

2-time Oceania Champion, Bronze, and Silver World medalist 2022 & 23 from Australia super authentical EILEEN CIKAMATANA; 

two solid powerhouses from the Team China:

WANG ZHOUYU: during her 9 years at the international platform she won 2 gold and 2 silver medals at the Worlds, also she is an Olympic Champion 2021 in Tokyo, 

and LIANG XIAOMEI, who is a two-time World Champion and current world record holder in Clean & Jerk in this weight class.

All of them reserved 270 kg for the opening total, so no doubt, today they will make an outstanding weightlifting show!

Snatch

The performance in the Snatch exercise started from 100 kg.

• 6: Erighina Elena – 106 kg
• 5: Nolasco Hernandez Lizbeth Gabriela – 108 kg
• 4: Zielinska Weronika – 108 kg

On this contest day, 64 % of all attempts were successful which is an above-average rate.

Top 3 Leaders’ Results

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

• 🥇Liang Xiaomei – 123 kg
• 🥈Wang Zhouyu – 120 kg
• 🥉Cikamatana Eileen – 112 kg

Cikamatana Eileen from Australia won the bronze medal in the snatch by lifting 112 kg. The first attempt was 112 kg she failed, the second was of the same 112 kg, and the last try of 117 kg she didn’t manage to lift because of hurry and inner tense. To compare her previous results in Snatch, today she showed one of the best results: it was 3 kilos less than at the IWF World Cup in Rome, resulting in gold.

The second place went to Wang Zhouyu from China who snatched 120 kg. However, she didn’t succeed in lifting 125 kg on the second and third attempts. Unfortunately, she didn’t show her best performance as at her last performance at the Worlds in Riyadh she lifted 122 kg. But, her best Snatch was 126 kg at the Asian Championships in Tashkent.

The gold medal went to Liang Xiaomei who snatched 123 kg. She did 115 kg on the first attempt, and 120 kg on the second, resulting in 123 kg. Today she showed her peak performance for the battle: ultimate power, inner stability, and cool mind as she showed her best Snatch.

Snatch results

Summing up the Snatch results, it was obvious who was likely to lead this competition. The Chinese team has already showcased multiple times that their athletes are one of the strongest ones. So, Wang Zhouyu and Liang Xiaomei were in the leading positions in Snatch. Both athletes started their lifts with a great weight margin compared to the rest, namely 10 kg and 15 kg gaps respectively. However, Wang lost her position a bit at the second and third tries failing to lift 125 kg. This mistake enabled her teammate Liang to become a leader today.

Cikamatana Eileen finished third, with 8 kilos behind Wang. It seemed to us that the Australian athlete was too self-confident and emotional as usual, which hindered her from coping with the ordered weights

What about the rest of the athletes within the Top 6, the Polish athlete Weronika Zielinska was fourth with 108 kg. She showed a good performance and looked confident enough, but the third attempt failed. The fifth place went to the Mexican Nolasco Hernandez Lizbeth with her successful final attempt in 108 kg, while Elena Erighina from Moldova closed the Top 6 with 106 kg.

Clean & Jerk

The contest in the Clean & Jerk discipline started with a weight of 120 kg.

• 6: Ziekinska Weronika – 131 kg
• 5: Narin Dilara – 131 kg
• 4: Laylor Maya Celeste – 132 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:

• 🥇Liang Xiaomei – 161 kg
• 🥈Cikamatana Eileen – 149 kg
• 🥉Wang Zhouyu – 148 kg

Wang Zhouyu clinched third place by lifting 148 kg on the first attempt. Namely her first attempt was the only successful today, as she resulted with no-lifts in the second and third attempts failing to lift 155 kg and 160 kg.

The silver medalist in this session became Cikamatana Eileen with a result of 149 kg on the second try. Today she started her performance with 143 kg, then moved to 149 kg on the second try. The third attempt was 152kg which resulted in no lift.

Liang Xiaomei became a gold winner with the incredible lift of 161 kg that brought her victory and a new Senior World Record. It needs to be mentioned that she also set the Clean & Jerk world record in Riyadh was 159 kg but in the 71-kg weight class.

Clean & Jerk Results

If summarizing the whole session, there were numerous red lights on the scoreboard: all lifters had at least one failed lift, but the majority resulted in double ‘no lift’ attempts. Even the leaders made mistakes except for Liang Xiaomei who made a Senior World Record today: she lifted 161 kg at the second try, improving her previous world record set in Riyadh by 2 kilos.

Her teammate Wang Zhouyu was trying to get closer to the world record, alas, she failed her second and third attempts that resulted in the third place. Cikamatana had great ambitions for this battle, but she didn’t manage to cope with emotions and finished her performance with 149 kg.

By the way, another record set this evening: the Japanese lifter Nagashima Wakana succeeded in setting the Junior World Record with 131 kg at the second attempt. However, she ranked seventh in this exercise.

The fourth place moved to the Canadian athlete Laylor Maya Celeste who showed much better results in Clean & Jerk than in Snatch; the fifth spot went to the Turkish lifter from group B Narin Dilara. While Zielinska Weronika managed to secure sixth place in this session.

Total results

• 🥇Liang Xiaomei  – 284 kg
• 🥈Wang Zhouyu  – 268 kg
• 🥉Cikamatana Eileen – 261 kg
• 4 Zielinska Weronika  – 239 kg
• 5 Nolasco Hernandez – 236 kg
• 6 Nagashima Wakana – 236 kg

The gold medalist in the division was Liang Xiaomei who did 284 kg overall. It was her best result and is also a new World Record.

The silver medal went to her teammate Wang Zhouyu who got 16 kg less in total, 268 kg, showing her average at the competition. Just to say: her best total was 286 kg at the 2020 Asian Champs.

Eileen Cikamatana took bronze due to her total of 261 kg, which was her second-best result in her career. This time she possibly didn’t balance her strength and inner stability properly, so it seemed she was in a hurry at each lift.

Final thoughts

The performance in the Women’s 81-kg division proved once again that the Chinese training strategy and overall approach for preparing champions have no equal. Wang and Xiaomei showed incredible lifts that defeated their opponents with a great cushion behind them.

This performance was also memorable due to several world records set: Liang Xioamei set two records in Clean & Jerk and Total, while the Japanese Nagashima succeeded in setting the Youth World Record in Clean & Jerk as well.

Subscribe to our channels and keep watching the world-level event with us, as the competition is already over halfway to its culmination. Let’s predict together who’s reign the podium in the next days!

Thumb up our videos to get prime-quality content and firsthand information directly from the lifters. Keep track of the competition and support your favorites. Stay strong and remember – warm body cold mind!