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Snatch	Jerk	Total	All
Men’s senior world records:	4	2	3	9
Men’s junior world records:	1	4	2	7
Men’s Olympic records:	8	3	6	17
Women’s senior world records:	6	4	7	17
Women’s junior world records:	1	1	1	3
Women’s Olympic records:	5	4	8	17
In all:	25	18	27	70

In terms of the number of records both superheavy Olympic Champions have eclipsed their colleagues: Chinese DING Meiyuan and Iranian Hossein REZAZADEH.

Women’s +75 kg Olympic Champion DING Meiyuan (1979) set up 5 senior world and 5 Olympic records. First she improved the total to 292.5, then to 297.5 kg, before finally marking an unprecedented 300 kg.

Hossein REZAZADEH (1978) became the owner of 3 senior world and 5 Olympic records. On his way towards the Olympic title, he took extraordinary big leaps. First he improved his own pre-Olympic world record snatch to 206 kg to 212.5 kg, then outlifted German Ronny WELLER’s total world record by 10 kg: stopping at 472.5 kg.

Junior World Championships 2000

The International Weightlifting Federation held the 26th Men’s and 6th Women’s Junior World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, 2-9 July 2000. 96 female competitors from 32 countries and 159 male athletes from 40 countries entered the competitions.
The best women’s teams were: Chinese Taipei, Spain and Colombia. Undoubtedly the queen of women’s weightlifting, China got only 13th place for the single reason that it entered only three competitors, not seven like her rivals.
The best male team came from Russia, before Turkey and China. Thanks to LIU, Dongping (CHN) and WROBEL, Agata (POL), the women set up three senior and three junior world records. Especially remarkable was the performance of WROBEL (19 years old). Her 130-kg new world record in snatch and 290-kg new world record in total are the absolute best results of all times in the history of women’s weightlifting. The men set up 8 junior world records. Superheavyweight Ukrainian UDACHIN, Artem collected all three gold medals in his category and broke the clean and jerk world record with 240kg, and the total with 430kg.

19-year old Polish woman WROBEL, Agata, weighing 120.67kg, produced sensational world records and achieved the best results of all times for any woman. No female weightlifter had ever snatched 130kg and reached a total result of 290kg (including a 160kg clean and jerk). There are all indications that at what is going to be the female weightlifters’ first ever Olympic showing in Sydney, the fight of WROBEL against the so-far-undefeated Chinese in the plus 75kg category will be one of the highlights of the Games.
Another big sensation was the victory of a USA lifter, CHAPLIN, Oscar (1980) in the men’s 77kg, winning the clean and jerk and the total Junior World Champion titles (187.5kg, 342.5kg).
In the history of Junior World Championships for Men since 1975, it was for the first time that an American took the World Champion titles. From the previous 25 Junior World Championships, the USA collected altogether 4 bronze medals, while in Prague CHAPLIN took two gold medals and one silver medal at once.

Since the first World Championships in weightlifting in 1891, attention has always been focused on the superheavyweight category. The winner of this battle is invariably considered to be the World’s Strongest Man. At the Junior World Championships for Men and Women (under 20 years), UDACHIN, Artem of Ukraine among the men and WROBEL, Agata of Poland for the women both proved that they must be taken into account also in the field of the seniors.
Wrobel’s 130-kg snatch and 290-kg total senior and junior world records are unprecedented and never achieved by any other woman before. Ninefold junior world champion Udachin jerked 240kg and improved the total world record to 430kg indicating that, as an Olympic rookie in Sydney he would most likely finish in the top six, but in 2004 he might become the number one contender to the gold medal.

IWF Executive Board Decided 2001 Venue

The Executive Board of the IWF gave the organisation of the 2001 Weightlifting World Championships for University and College Students – the 4th of this kind - to Ruzomberok, Slovakia.

World Championships for University and College Students

Weightlifting just completed the 3rd edition of its World Championships for University and College Students, 9-11 June 2000, in Montreal, Canada.
A total of 94 participants representing 20 countries attended the competitions where Chinese women excelled setting up four world records.
Wang Yanmei of China marked a new clean and jerk record of 161 kg in the +75 kg category, which is the biggest weight any woman has ever lifted in competition.

Weightlifting Completed Olympic Test Event in Sydney

On 25-26 March, 2000, weightlifting carried out the Telstra International competition in Sydney, which served as a Test Event for the Olympic Games. The Olympic venue, the Darling Harbour Convention Centre was used for the Tournament which proved to be an excellent opportunity to train and test both facilities and staff for the Games. It was the first ever sports event held in the Convention Centre and turned out to be a great success with international participation from 15 countries.

IWF Executive Board Selects Olympic Officials

The IWF Executive Board held its annual meeting in Los Angeles, USA, on 8-9 April, 2000. On the Agenda were, among others, items like the selection of the jury members, referees and other technical officials for the Sydney Olympic Games; or the discussion of the proposals to amend the IWF Constitution and Technical Rules for the next Olympiad.
The Executive Board also approved a report on the doping controls carried out by the Federation in 1999 (1223 tests both in and out of competition, with the number of positives being less than 2%) and the plan for the doping controls to be made in 2000. The Executive Board paid a visit to the Amateur Athletic Foundation where they were received by Ms. Anita Defrantz, IOC Vice President and Chairwoman of the AAF.

ATTENTION NATIONAL FEDERATIONS PARTICIPATING IN THE SYDNEY 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES!!!

Re: Entry Totals to be accepted for the Sydney Olympic Games

Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends,

In connection with the Entry Regulations to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Weightlifting competitions, we wish to ask you to observe the following:

The Best (Entry) Totals indicated on the Olympic Entry Forms for the athletes of the qualified NOC teams, which will be the basis for the IWF for the allocation of the competitors into the Group A or B (men) and listing them on the Start List, must meet the following criteria:
a) Total results achieved in official international competitions between 1st January, 1999 and 30th June, 2000. Such competitions must be in the IWF Calendar, with IWF Controller and IWF doping controls. Total results must have been achieved in the bodyweight category which is the same where the athlete is entered to the Olympic Games.
b) Athletes who cannot register any such Total in their respective category of Entry during the above-mentioned period for any reason (injury, dropping out, etc.) may indicate a Best Total at their choice, but the actual starting weights in snatch and jerk cannot give a Total less than 20 kg under the indicated Best Total.

For those athletes making their Olympic qualification on the Individual Qualification basis (Special Ranking List) the NOC can only indicate their Best Total achieved in one of the Qualification events (1999 World Championships or the Continental Qualification event in 2000) and they can participate in the Olympic Games only in the bodyweight category for which they have qualified.

Dr. Tamas Ajan

IWF General Secretary

2000 Junior World Championships

Following a withdrawal in December by the originally appointed organiser, Egypt, a new location and host was approved by the IWF:

the 2000 Junior World Championships will now be held in Prague, Czech Republic, 30 June – 8 July.

Dr. Ajan appointed to WADA

The IWF General Secretary, Dr. Tamas Ajan was invited to be a Member of WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency. WADA was established upon the initiative of the International Olympic Committee, following the World Conference on Doping in Lausanne, last February. With Dr. Ajan’s appointment to this world-wide organisation, beside his own knowledge and practice, the vast intelligence and experience accumulated in the 24 years of serious anti-doping battle of the IWF have found recognition.

Unprecedented Participation and World Records, Record Spectator Numbers at the 1999 Weightlifting World Championships in Athens, Greece

All-time participation records were broken in Athens, at the 70th Men’s and 13th Women’s Weightlifting World Championships (21-28 November 1999). Altogether 626 competitors – men and women – representing 88 nations fought for the titles and the team points which, at the same time, were worth of slots for the NOCs in the Sydney 2000 Olympic weightlifting events.

In some bodyweight categories the number of participants exceeded 60 for men and 40 for women and competitions in A-B-C and D sessions had to be carried out in two parallel halls thoughout the days.

At what undoubtedly deserved the title of the “Greatest World Championships of the Century”, the women set 15 senior and 9 junior world records; the men 14 senior and 4 junior world records. For the first time in the 108-year old history of the Weightlifting World Championships, Qatar (3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze) and Nauru (1 silver) won their first ever medals.

The World Champion titles in the 8 men’s categories were taken by weightlifters from eight different countries and even in the women’s field, Chinese ladies captured “only” four categories, thus enabling a very wide range of nations to score victories.

An unprecedented 10,000 enthusiastic crowd filled the vast Peace and Friendship Stadium in Pyraeus to capacity for the contests of the Greek champions: Pyrros DIMAS and Akakios KAKHIASVILIS, both of them 2-times Olympic Champions. A further 2 thousand spectators remained outside the Stadium.

The men’s team ranking was headed by Greece, the women’s by China.

The biggest surprise was the victory of newcomer Shahin NASSIRINIA of Iran in the 85kg category over the top favourite, though injured, Pyrros DIMAS of Greece. In the 94kg, the home crowd celebrated gold and bronze medals won respectively by local heros Akakios KAKHIASVILIS and Leonidas KOKAS. Two further Olympic champions were able to defend their world titles: Halil MUTLU of Turkey (in 56kg) and Andrei CHEMERKIN of Russia (in +105kg).

"Thank you, Greece!"

IWF Decisions

At the International Weightlifting Federation’s Annual Congress, held on 20th November 1999 in Athens, under the chairmanship of Gottfried SCHODL, IWF President and Dr. Tamas AJAN, IWF General Secretary, delegates of 90 member countries were present.

The delegates listened to reports of organisers of future events:

· The 2000 Sydney Olympic Games
· The 2004 Athens Olympic Games
· The 2000 University World Championships – Montreal, CAN
· The 2001 Junior World Championships – Saloniki, GRE
· The 2001 World Championships – Nauru
· The 2002 World Championships – Spala, POL

The IWF Executive Board awarded the organisation of future World Championships:

2002 Junior World Championships - Kathmandu, Nepal
2003 World Championships - Vancouver, Canada,
2003 Junior World Championships - Tel-Aviv, Israel

AIPS Weightlifting Commission 30 Years Old

Several decades ago, the AIPS (International Sports Journalist Association) made the initiative to establish special AIPS Commissions in the various sports. The idea was – and the past thirty plus years have spectacularly proven it right – that a co-operation in this format between the sport’s international leaders and the sports journalists could only be of benefit to both parties and the sport itself.

Today there are over thirty such specialized AIPS Commissions in operation. The first ones were founded in the mid sixties.

The Weightlifting Commission of the AIPS was created in September 1969 in Warsaw, within the framework of the 43rd World Championships. It was preceded by the Commissions in athletics and basketball.

The sports journalists specialized in weightlifting celebrate the 30th birthday of their Commission during the 1999 World Championships in Athens.

As it has been confirmed repeatedly on various occasions by the top officials of the AIPS, the Weightlifting Commission is not only one of the oldest but also one of the best-working groupings within the Association. The collaboration between the IWF and the AIPS Weightlifting Commission is universally judged as being exemplary. Among all sports weightlifting is the only one which publishes its official colour magazine under the joint headline of the IWF and the AIPS.

The AIPS Weightlifting Commission has boosted its activity and gained world-wide recognition especially since 1985. That was when French journalist Alain Lunzenfichter took chairmanship in the commission. Lunzenfichter has imperishable merits in establishing what is now an ideal relationship with the International Federation and a universal recognition in the professional circles.

We must mention also the fact that the top management of the AIPS itself, the 5-member Bureau, comprises in addition to Turkish Togay Bayatli, President, Finnish Matti Salmenkyla, General Secretary and Maltese Charles Camenzuli, Treasurer, two representatives of the Weightlifting Commission: Alain Lunzenfichter, 1st Vice President and Jeno Boskovics, Deputy General Secretary.

At its anniversary meeting in Athens, the Commission will be honoured by the IWF.

30-Year Old EWF Celebrated

The European Weightlifting Federation’s 30^th Anniversary was solemnly celebrated in Spala, Poland, on the occasion of the Junior European Championships. All former and Honorary Presidents of the Federation were invited and honoured by the host Polish Federation.

23 World Records in Wuhan

Asian women weightlifters established a total of 13 absolute and 8 junior world records and the men set one senior and one junior world record at the Continent’s Senior and Junior Championships held 29 August to 5 September in Wuhan, China.

The Chinese ladies once again proved their supremacy, taking most of the titles. The world’s foremost female weightlifter, favourite for Olympic championship, Tang Weifang (CHN) again rewrote the world records in the 75 kg category.

The men’s Championships featured some surprise results achieved by Iranian lifters. In the 105 kg, Hossein Tavakoli (IRI) defeated Chinese world champion Cui Wenhua and in the superheavyweight category junior world champion Hossein Rezazadeh (IRI) achieved a 430 kg total result.

The All Africa Games just completed in Johannesburg, South Africa, served as the first Olympic Qualification event in weightlifting for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The main Olympic qualification event is the 1999 World Championships for Men and Women, to be held in Athens, 21-28 November.

Provided by: Jeno Boskovics, IWF Spokesman

Aniko Nemeth-Mora, IWF Media Officer

Most Important Events in the Century

Under this title published in the previous 1999/1 issue of World Weightliftingwe asked the weightlifting community and our readers to let us know: what do you consider to be the most important event that happened in weightlifting in this Century.

We asked for replies to be forwarded to us until 15^th May, 1999.

We did in fact receive quite a few replies, but on second thought we believed that there was no reason for hurry, there was still time left until the end of the Century. Therefore, we now extend the deadline to 31^st December 1999 and will publish the summary of the replies in World Weightlifting’s 2000/1 issue.

Yet, just to give you some food for thought, we give you a few ideas picked from the answers received:

• The awakening of women’s weightlifting and its inclusion in the Olympic Games
• 1972 – the abolishment of the press
• 1975 – introduction of the Junior World Championships
• 1976 – when the IWF was the first among the sports to launch a serious anti-doping battle
• Senior and Junior World Championships expanding to former “white spots” of the world

Please send us your idea about the Most Important Event in this Century until 31^st December, 1999!

Four New Members to the IWF

At its General Congress, held on 2^nd July 1999 in Savannah, USA, the IWF approved the affiliation of four new members all from the Oceanian Region):

Marshall Islands (MAI)

Niue (NIU)

Tuvalu (TUV)

Vanuatu (VAN)

At present, the number of the IWF affiliated members is 168.

1999 World Weightlifting Championships for Juniors in Savannah, USA

Savannah, Georgia, USA hosted the 25^th edition of the Men’s and the 5^th one of the Women’s World Weightlifting Championships for Juniors with 206 competitors from 40 countries participating.

The men established 10 new world records (2 of these for seniors), and the women set up 19 world records (9 of these senior records as well).

To enormous surprise, for the first time in the history of the sport, the Women’s team classification was won by Spain, preceding China and the USA. Among the men, China was most successful with Turkey and Romania following.

The AIPS-ELEIKO Trophy for the Best Lifter of the World Championships was awarded to Chinese weightlifter Shi Zhijong (men) and Polish lifter Agata Wrobel (women).

Recognition for Jesse Owens

A special event highlighted the Closing Banquet of the 1999 Junior World Weightlifting Championships held in Savannah, USA.

As it is known, on the occasion of the 75^th Anniversary of the AIPS, the world’s sports journalists elected ‘The Best Athletes of the Century’. The awarding ceremony was held on 26th June 1999 in Budapest, with H.E. Juan Antonio Samaranch in attendance as Guest of Honour.

One of the top 25 Athletes voted as Best of the Century was legendary Olympic champion US athlete Jesse Owens. By a joint gesture and effort of the International Weightlifting Federation and the US Olympic Committee, Mrs. Hamphill, daughter of the late Jesse Owens also appeared in Savannah and took over, amidst great jubilation, the prestigeous Trophy for her father from Dr. Tamas Ajan, IWF General Secretary, Patron of the Budapest Gala, and Jeno Boskovics, IWF Spokesman and AIPS Deputy Secretary General, author and organiser of the celebration.

In a few emotional sentences, Jesse Owens’s daughter thanked the sports journalists of the world for not having forgotten her father even after so many years.

26 New World Records at University World Championships

1-3^rd May, 1999, Chiba, Japan hosted the 2nd edition of the Weightlifting World Championships for University and College Students. Altogether 18 nations sent participants from 5 continents: 60 men representing 15 countries, and 33 women representing 11 countries.

The best nation among the men was China, preceding Chinese Taipei and Korea. Despite the largest number of gold medals amassed by the Chinese women, in the women’s classification Chinese Taipei became first, with China and Japan in second and third places, respectively.

In the men’s 56kg, 62kg, 69kg, 77kg, and 85 kg categories, the Chinese won all the gold medals. In the 105kg category, Martin Tesovic of Slovakia scored gold. In the women’s field, Chinese students shared 18 gold medals. Defender of the University World Champion title, female Lifter of the Year in 1997 and 1998, Tang Weifang (China) once again excelled by outlifting the silver medallist by 30kg and improving the clean and jerk world record to 140.5kg (in 75kg category).

In the Championships, thanks to the women, 19 senior and 7 junior world records were established. Meng Xianjuan and Lei Li established five new world records each. Last year’s Asian Games winner, leader of the 1998 World Ranking, modified the snatch world record from 120.5 to 121kg, the clean and jerk world record from 155.5 to 156kg and the total world mark from 270 to 275kg. Such weights had never been lifted before by any women weightlifter.

Detailed Results

Lifters of the Year – 1998

The Best Woman: Tang Weifang

The Best Man: Plamen Jeliazkov

Evaluation:

For a world champion title in total, for both men and women, 12 points were allocated, for a gold medal on an individual lift 10 points. World records are worth 10 points in total, 8 points in snatch or clean and jerk.

Chinese Tang Weifang achieved an absolute record with her 84 points. Among the male weightlifters, 50 points were sufficient for Bulgarian Plamen Jeliazkov to become the Best of 1998.

Lifters of the Year 1998

The winners:
TANG Weifang (1978) Since 1994, she has been a world ranking leader untinterruptedly until 1998 when she finished in second place in her category. Best results since 1994: 230, 225, 227.5, 260, 242.5 kg. (She totalled 260 kg in the 83 kg category; the first three results in the 70 kg, the 1998 result in the 69 kg categories.) She had twelve world championship medals: 10 in gold, 2 in silver. She has established altogether 31 senior and 34 junior world records.
JELIAZKOV Plamen (1972) At the 1994 World Championships, he became 8th (325 kg), at the Atlanta Olympic Games 4th (335 kg). He did not participate in 1997, only to make a comeback in Lahti with 350 kg (160, 190), including three gold medals and two world records. His advance is clear-cut from the progress of his best results year by year: 1991: 320 (9th in the world ranking), 1992: 302.5 (23rd), 1995: 325 (10th), 1996: 335 (5th), 1997: 330 (5th), 1998: 350 (1st).

Continental Federation Elections

1999 is election year for most of the Continental Federations approved by the IWF.

So, the Asian Weightlifting Federation had its electoral Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, this January and the following new officials were elected:

President: SAKURAI Katsutoshi (JPN)

General Secretary: SAY LEAN Michael Koay (SIN)

Vice Presidents: TI Wei (CHN)
TAI Yuen (HKG)
KHARTOHADIPRODJO Budiono (INA)
AL ZAFIRI Naif Z.B. (KUW)
Datuk BOON LEONG Wira Gan (MAS)
Maj. Gen. YODBANGTOEY Intarat (THA)

Board Members: Brig. Gen. KABLY Bakr (KSA)
Wg Cdr. AHMED Mohyuddin (BAN)
KHANRA Gopal (IND)
MORADI Ali (IRI)
NI Viktor Sounovitch (KAZ)
CHANG Ok Ahn (KOR)
BLANCO Ricardo (PHI)
CHANG Chao-Kuo (TPE)
ANVAROV Mirzolim (UZB)

Elections in the Weightlifting Federation of Africa took place in Cairo, on 11^th April, 1999.

Officials elected for the term until 2003 are:

President: HANNA Gamil (EGY)

General Secretary Treasurer: Brig. HANNA Samir (EGY)

Vice Presidents: BELKACEM Bammou (MAR)
O’OMUOMBO Tom (KEN)
ABDELAZIZ Ebrahimi (ALG)
(Mrs.) RUMMUN Fatima (MRI)

Board Members: MOHALHAL Khalid (LBA)
EDRIS Housin (TUN)
ADPOJU Emmanuel (NGR)
MONTGOMERY Hubert (RSA)
MUSOKE Salim (UGA)

Similarly, new officials were elected to the European Weightlifting Federation, at its Congress in La Coruna, Spain, on 13 April 1999.

President: BASZANOWSKI Waldemar (POL)
General Secretary: ERCOLANI Marino Casadei (SMR)
Vice Presidents: SGOUROS Yannis (GRE) (1st)
KLOKOV Viacheslav (RUS)
BAROGA Lazar (ROM)
MOLLOV Nikola (BUL)
Dr. LASZLO Imre (HUN)
Executive Members: MATTINGSDAL Per (NOR)
BARAK Shimon Yerucham (ISR)
ZORATTI Marcello (ITA)
BULGARIDHES Jean Paul (FRA)
KARE Pekka (FIN)
JOHN Myrddin (GBR)

Immediate past President of the EWF, HOLLAND Wally (GBR) was accorded the title of Honorary President of the EWF.

1998 World Championships - Lahti, FIN

The first World Championships held in Finland in this sport since the Helsinki Olympic Games, 1952, the competitions in Lahti, Finland's "Sports Capital" ran from 10 to 15 November 1998.
The first to be executed in the new, Olympic bodyweight category structure of 8 for the men and 7 for the women - in force since the beginning of this year - the 1998 World Championships welcomed a male field of 210 competitors from 54 countries, and 122 women weightlifters representing 34 nations.

Among both the men and the women, the medals were shared by representatives of a large variety of nations. New world champions are: JELIAZKOV, Plamen and GARDEV, Georgi (BUL), ASANIDZE, Georgi (GEO), CARUSO, Oliver (GER). Among the women, LI, Yunli, WANG, Xiufen, SHI, Lihua, TANG, Weifang, GAO, Xiaoyan (CHN), KUO Chu-Ping (TPE) and WROBEL, Agata (POL) had never been senior world champions before.

Both twofold Olympic Champions of Greece: DIMAS, Pyrros and KAKHIASVILIS, Akakios entered their first challenge since the Atlanta Olympic Games. They remain the leading force in their respective categories: 85kg (DIMAS) and 94kg (KAKHIASVILIS).

In the six days of competitions in Lahti, altogether 14 new world records were born.

An unprecedented situation occurred in the men's Team Classification: Greece and Bulgaria both collected 566 points. According to the rules, in such case the greater number of gold, then silver, than bronze medals decides in favour of one or another nation. In Lahti, these two countries had exactly the same number and composition of medals, even the number of the fourth places obtained was equal. Finally, due to the fact that the Hellenic athletes had 3 fifth places (!) against Bulgaria's 2, it was Greece that won the winning team's trophy.

Team Ranking:

Important decisions by the International Federation

At the IWF Annual Congress, held on 9 Nov. 1998 preceding the Weightlifting World Championships in Lahti, Finland, the IWF approved the affiliation of KIRIBATI (in Oceania), which increased the IWF membership to 163 countries.

The IWF Executive Board allocated future World Championships. In a difficult choice among three very capable competitors (Germany, Poland, Nauru), the IWF finally passed a landmark decision when it gave the organisation of the 2001 Men's and Women's World Championships to NAURU (Oceania)! Carrying out the first senior World Championships in the new millennium, Nauru, a tiny island in the Pacific with less than 8,000 inhabitants, will make a historical entry in the annals of sports worldwide.

Saloniki, GREECE received the organisation of the 2001 Junior World Championships.

The right for the organisation of the 2002 World Championships was given to POLAND, the City of Spala.

Lahti '98 Preview - Lahti, Finland, 9-15 November

Who Will Be The 1,000th World Champion?

The 69th Men's and 12th Women's Weightlifting World Championships will be held in Lahti, Finland, 9-15 November. This will be the first championships to include contests in eight categories for men and in seven categories for women.

In the history of world championships stretching from 28 March 1891 until our days, special features will mark the challenges in Lahti.

In altogether 68 world championships, the men shared 991 gold medals. Since a total of 24 gold medals are to be issued in the eight categories in Lahti, the aggregate number of world championship gold medals must surpass One Thousand this year.

Who will receive the 1,000th gold medal of senior men's world championships?

What we know now is that this particular gold medal will be awarded to the winner of the total in the 69kg category. But what we do not know yet is who may that lucky guy be: last year's world champion of the 70kg Bulgarian Vanev Zlatan, or Olympic champion Chinese Zhan Xugang, or someone else...?

And there is another momentous event for us to witness in Lahti. In the men's world championships, altogether 2,963 medals have been awarded to date (991 gold, 987 silver and 985 bronze). 37 more are needed to complete 3,000. Lahti will allocate a total of 72 medals to the men, so the 3,000th medal will also find its proud owner in the Finnish town. This owner will be the one who wins third place in the snatch in the 85kg category.

Ladies, do not be afraid: you will also have "special" medals to celebrate at the '98 Worlds.

Eleven world championships have taken place so far which distributed 297 gold medals altogether. Lahti will, therefore, mark the 300th women's gold medal: its recipient is the total winner of the 48kg.

In the eleven world championships a total of 891 medals (297 gold, 297 silver, 297 bronze) have been awarded to the women. The third-place winner of the total in the 48kg category is thus to take over the 900th world championships medal.

In conclusion, Lahti '98 will label the following "special" medals:

The One-Thousandth men's world champion title - to go to the total winner in 69kg
The 3,000th men's world championships medal - 3rd place in snatch, in 85kg
The 300th women's world champion title - to go to the total winner in 48kg
The 900th women's world championships medal - bronze in total in 48kg

The IWF, the AIPS Weightlifting Commission and World Weightlifting will offer special Trophies to those winning these four exceptional medals. Similar initiatives on behalf of other parties are most welcome.

AIPS Elections

Coincidingly with the 1998 Men's and Women's World Championships, the four-year mandate of the AIPS Weightlifting Commission will expire. The Commission's outgoing officers were elected at the 1994 World Championships in Istanbul.

The AIPS Weightlifting Commission was established on the occasion of the 1969 World Championships in Warsaw. Completing nearly three decades of activity, the group of sports journalists specialized on Chairman has been Frenchman Alain Lunzenfichter, a member of the Editorial Board of the world's largest circulation sports daily, L'Equipe. Alain Lunzenfichter was elected to First Vice President of the AIPS in 1997. Since its foundation in 1969, the Weightlifting Commission has had one General Secretary: Jeno Boskovics, who has been the AIPS Deputy General Secretary since 1997.

The new management will be elected by the sports journalists in Lahti from a list of candidates. Candidatures may be submitted to the positions of Chairman, Vice Chairman, General Secretary and Council Member.

Candidatures are welcome by the AIPS Secretariat (1054 Budapest, Hold u. 1., Hungary), before 15 October 1998. Candidates must be holders of the AIPS Card valid for 1998 and 1999.

World Championships Schedule

7 Nov.	IWF Committee meetings
8 Nov.	IWF Executive Board meeting
9 Nov.	Verification of Final Entries - IWF Annual Congress Technical Officials' meeting
10 Nov.	Women 48 and 53kg Men 56kg
11 Nov.	Women 58 and 63kg Men 62kg
12 Nov.	Men 69 and 77kg
13 Nov.	Women 69 and 75kg Men 85kg
14 Nov.	Men 94 and 105kg
15 Nov.	Women +75kg Men +105kg

World Weightlifting Championships 1998
Svinhufvudinkatu 23 A 15110 Lahti, Finland
Tel: 358 3 821 411 Fax: 358 3 821 4121
E-mail:  spnl@sci.fi
Web Site:  www.wwc98.com

General Secretary Matti Everi
Tel: 358 500 236 279 Fax: 358 2 529 9379
E-mail:  matti.everi@kkk.inet.fi

Weightlifting World Championships Much In Demand 07.09.

Weightlifting World Championships will celebrate their 69th edition for the men and 12th edition for the women, this November in Lahti, Finland.

Next year's World Championships will be held in Athens. The 1999 Championships in Greece will, at the same time, serve as the main Olympic qualification event for both male and female weightlifters for Sydney 2000.

The 1999 Junior World Championships are slated for June in Savannah, USA and the right to host the 2000 event for the under 20 year old age group has been given to Egypt.

It seems that the Weightlifting World Championships beyond 2000 are much sought after. The race for the 2001 events has begun and although the deadline for the candidatures expires only on 15 September 1998, Germany, Nauru, Poland and Turkey have already presented their bid for the senior World Championships, Russia for the Junior World Championships.

Both the senior and the Junior events will be allocated by the IWF Executive Board at its meeting in Lahti on 8 November 1998.

First Olympic Weightlifting Coin

For the first time in history, an Olympic coin has been struck specifically to commemorate the sport of wieghtlifting.

The bright aluminium bronze coin was released in October last year and is part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program, a collection of 52 coins celebrating Sydney's Millennium Games, which will be staged in September, 2000.

The attractive and affordable coin features a highly polished image of a weightlifter against a frosted background and carries the Olympic year date, 2000 -the first coin in the world to do so.

The coin is legal tender of Australia and is presented in a colourful individual creditcard style pack bearing the official logo of Sydney Olympic Games and a brief profile on weightlifting.

Australia's two official mints, The Perth Mint and the Royal Australian Mint, have combined their expertise to produce the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program, which features eight gold, 16 silver and 28 bright aluminium bronze coins.

The program has been authorised by the Australian Government and is conducted under the auspices of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG).

Both mints share an international reputation for efficient, high quality coin and medallion production.

The Royal Australian Mint, a division of the Commonwealth Treasury, is the sole producer of Australia's circulating coinage and the dominant issuer of Australian collector coins, while the Perth Mint is renowned as Australia's specialists precious metals mint.

The Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program is the most ambitios Olympic coin program ever undertaken by a host country and will be marketed in arounded 60 countries between October 1997 and May 2000.

The program is the first to emrace a coin for each of the 28 Olympic sports, including weightlifting, and these have been produced in bright aluminium bronze to make them accessible to collectors of all ages and income levels.

All the bright aluminium bronze coins in the Sydney Olympic Coin Collection have a face value of $5.00 and are produced to meet market demand.

The limited mintage precios metal coins echo the themes of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and are the purest Olympic coins ever minted, with the gold coins 99.99% pure and the silver, 99.99% pure.

The 10-gram gold coins focus on the athlete and cover a number of themes from "The Journey Begins" through "Dedication" to "Preparation" and "Achievement". They have limited mintages of 30,000 each (240,000 gold coins in total) and a face value of $100.00.

All the silver coins and the first gold coin in the collection feature the use of colour for the first time in Olympic and Australian coin history, and all carry the Olympic year date, 2000, including those minted in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

The one-ounce silver proof coins celebrate Australia's unique flora and fauna and its cultural diversity, and have mintages limited to 100,000 each (1.6 million in total) and face value of $5.00.

The bright aluminium bronze weightlifting coin offers an excellent opportunity for national weightlifting associations to raise funds as a Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program has agreed to supply the coins to associations at the wholesale price of US $5, allowing the associations to on-sell the coins to their members at a reasonable retail mark-up.

If you need any information on the program, please contact Mr Anton Porzig, joint Marketing Director, GPO Box M924, Perth, Western Australia, 6004.

Tel: (618) 9421-7265 Fax: (618) 9221-7031.

Results of the 1st World Championships for University and College Students

Weightlifting Festival On The Island Of Nauru

Paul Coffa, founder and father of weightlifting (and sports) in Nauru, has told us about weightlifting on that tiny island, stories you would think can happen only in fairy tales. She has established altogether 31 senior and 34 junior world records.

Now, this Republic of a total population of 7,500 souls (!) hosted a fabulous festival of weightlifting at the end of March, with the participation of representatives of 24 countries from all over the world, 16 of them with competitors (80 altogether). The list of Guests of Honour included Gottfried Schodl, IWF President and Dr. Tamas Ajan, IWF General Secretary. All those present could be convinced that what had actually taken place in Nauru in terms of weightlifting and sports in just a couple of years was, although near to fiction, true reality.

Three events were staged concurrently: the 1998 Commonwealth Championships, the Oceania and the South-Pacific Championships, for both men and women lifters.

In the women’s field, 8 nations delegated 33 athletes, among the men 16 nations took part with 65 lifters.

The lineups included several weightlifters of international renown. One of the best of the ladies, Kunjarani of India (owner of 17 World Championships silver medals), as expected, remained among the lightest even after the reorganisation of the bodyweight categories. At the Chiangmai World Championships, she had lifted 170kg with a body of 45.80kg; in Nauru, she weighed 47.55kg and lifted again 170kg: not too bad for the beginning of the season. Indians continued to excel in the 53kg, 58kg, and the 75kg categories. New Zealand’s still junior world record holder girl, Olivia Baker increased her bodyweight from Chiangmai’s 101.60kg to 107.50kg and her result from 197.5 to 205kg.

In the men’s start list, former junior and senior world champion Kiril Kounev of Australia appeared as the participant with the most respectable record. He used to lift and score success in 82.5kg, in Chiangmai he fought as a 91-kg lifter (360kg), now his latest category is 94kg, with an output of 367.5kg, beating the silver medallist by 67.5kg. Nauru’s most famous weightlifter, Stephen Marcus won with a 30-kg advantage. He opened the 1998 season with a 282.5-kg total matching his World Championships score.

Kiril Kounev proved to be the best lifter of the Championships in an absolute sense: his 367.5kg was, for instance, 15kg better than the superheavy winner Liddell’s (NZL), although the latter outweighed him by 32kg.

The Weightlifting Federation of Bulgaria has just opened a weightlifting training camp for foreign sportsmen under the leadership of famous Bulgarian specialists and coaches.

For more information please contact the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation General Secretary Mr.Norair Nurikian (fax/telno.: 359 2 9810506)