The 2019 Youth World Championships was held over the 8th – 15th March in Las Vegas encompasing 13-17 year old weightlifters from across the world.

42 nations took part with 26 nations receiving medals (15 receiving golds!).

Uzbekistan came out on top for the ladies and Kazakhstan for the men.

A few countries with little previous weightlifting record history also bought home medals, including Brazil, Mongolia, Belgium, Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia.

World Records & Best Lifter Prize:

Women:

17 year old 64kg Uzbekistani lifter Kumushkhon Fayzullaeva came away with a 122kg clean and jerk and 215kg total! She also took home the Best Lifter prize for the girls.

17 year old Turkish lifter Dalira Narin claimed a world record for her 129kg clean and jerk in the women’s 76kg category.

Men:

Tu Tong Du of Vietnam competed on the opening day of the competition in the men’s 49kg category. At only 15 years old he took the world record Snatch (95), clean and jerk (125) and total (220)!

16 year old Kazhakstani lifter Saikhan Taisuyev took home Best Lifter and a world record clean and jerk of 161kgs in the 67kg category!

British performance

British lifters performance:

Myren Madden received 9th place in the mens 89kg category with a total of 246kg.

Scottish lifter, Drew Burn’s also came 9th in his 73kg with a 227kg total, with Jacob Finnigan placing 10th just 2kg behind Burns.

With two ladies from Kent competing in the 49kg category too, the group was great to watch! Only 1kg overall seperated Taliyah Homewood (64/57) and Mia Keegan (64/56) who finished 13th and 14th respectively.

Other Factors:

Several top weightlifting nations were also not present, including Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Ukraine, Belarus & Venezuela

Anti-doping was a focus at the championships with the IWF encouraging lifters to take a short training course on anti-doping and also testing 65% of the lifters, which is a very high percentage!

The championships also saw one of the first uses of video playback technology which was successfully used to assess challenged lift outcomes.

- Charlotte (Canterbury Strength)