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The 2019 Weightlifting World Championships: North Korea’s Om breaks two 55kg world records

Posted by Marie Curtis on
The 2019 Weightlifting World Championships: North Korea’s Om breaks two 55kg world records

Om Yun Chol of North Korea broke the men’s 55kg clean and jerk and total world records as retaining his 3 gold medals on the opening day of the 2019 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Pattaya.

The 2012 London Olympic Champion bettered Om’s own clean and jerk mark of 162kg with success at 166kg, which gave him a world record-breaking of 294kg.

Before lifting 166kg, he managed 155kg but failed at 163kg.

He won the snatch with a lift of 128kg, which gave him an 8kg lead going into the clean and jerk.

Now he is a five-time overall world champion with 12 gold medals to his name on the global stage.

Igor Son of Kazakhstan was overall silver medalist with 266kg, having finished fourth in the clean and jerk with 146kg and third in the snatch with 120kg.

Mansour Abdulrahim M Al Saleem of Saudi Arabia rounded off the podium with 265kg following his bronze medal in the clean and jerk with 147kg and the sixth-place finish in the snatch with 118kg.

 Nguyen Tran Anh Tuan of Vietnam was the snatch silver medalist with 120kg, meanwhile, Hafez Ghashghaei of Iran lifted 149kg in the clean and jerk and finished runner up.

In the women’s 45kg competition, Turkey’s European champion Şaziye Erdoğan triumphed overall with 169kg after having won the snatch with 77kg and come second in the clean and jerk on 92kg.

Ludia M. Montero Ramos of Cuba finished 2kg behind Erdoğan in the silver-medal position and ranked fourth in the clean and jerk with 91kg and second in the snatch with 76kg.

Lisa Setiawati of Indonesia had to settle for third place overall with 165kg, in spite of winning the clean and jerk with 95kg. She could only manage to rank seventh in the snatch, lifting 70kg.

Vietnam had bronze medalists in both the snatch and clean and jerk.

Khong My Phuong, Vietnam’s junior world champion, posted 74kg in the snatch and Asian champion Vuong Thi Huyen registered 91kg in the clean and jerk.

News

63-year-old woman breaks own world record at an international powerlifting meet

Posted by Marie Curtis on
63-year-old woman breaks own world record at an international powerlifting meet

At about 7:30 a.m. daily, Jeanine Watt wakes up to have a protein shake. Then she will spend an hour checking Facebook or playing on the computer before heading to work in the morning and the gym in the evening.

It might seem like the daily schedule of a student who is trying to balance work and school, but Jeanine Watt is 63 years old.

In June, Watt competed in the nationals for the Canadian Powerlifting Federation in Waterloo, where she set 2 world records for her bench press and deadlift.

In August, she defended those records herself at the Amateur World Powerlifting Congress in Orlando, Florida, the US. Although her deadlift record was surpassed by another competitor, Watt managed to break her own bench press record.

When being asked who she was outside of the gym, she would describe herself as someone who hadn’t decided what she wanted to do when she grew up.

“I have a biology degree. Then I went to become the union steward for the service employees at the hospital. After that I went to law school,” Watt said.

“I’ve worked as a stand-up comic. I opened for Elvira Kurt once, which was my big dream. And then, I was a hypnotist for a while.”

Recreationally, the 63-year-old used to play softball; however, that came to an end as her team disbanded about 3 years ago.

Watt says she also loves going to hardware stores to see the looks on employees’ faces when they watch her carry heavy items around the store by herself.

Watt, who signed up as a True Fitness gym member in March 2018, said: “I wanted to get in shape; therefore I decided to try some sports.”

Later that year, before signing up for the Canadian Senior Games in August, she tried mud runs and boating.

“The only thing I figured that I could get there with is running. I found out it was a bad idea … The track didn’t suit for me as I’m not built like a track athlete.”

I’m 63 years old now and I intend to break the bench press and deadlift record for 100-year-olds.”, Watt said.

However, she didn’t leave the Canadian Senior Games empty-handed as on the very first day she ever long-jumped, she won a bronze medal.