Moradi sets new world record in weightlifting

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Moradi sets new world record in weightlifting
Moradi now has a complete set of 94kg world records that will remain on the books forever.

Jakarta - Lifter hoisted 189kg in the competition's opening discipline to better the snatch record set at 188kg in 1999 by Greece's Akakios Kakiasvilis

By AFP

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Published: Sat 25 Aug 2018, 10:21 PM

Last updated: Sun 26 Aug 2018, 12:26 AM

Sohrab Moradi of Iran broke weightlifting's longest standing world record on his way to gold in the men's 94kg class at the Asian Games on Saturday.
Moradi hoisted 189kg in the competition's opening discipline to better the snatch record set at 188kg in 1999 by Greece's Akakios Kakiasvilis.
Moradi now has a complete set of 94kg world records that will remain on the books forever.
After the Asian Games all the sport's weight classes will change ahead of the Olympic qualifying cycle beginning at November's World Championships.
Moradi already owned the marks for the clean and jerk (233kg) and total weight (417kg) in the men's light heavyweight division. "I really wanted to break the world record as it was the only one I didn't have and this was my last chance," Moradi told AFP.
"I feel very happy to know that my name will always remain on all the 94kg world records."
The Iranian said he would now step up to the new 96kg class. "My next goal is the World Championships (in November) and after that to put on a good show at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics."
He just failed with an attempt at 234kg which would have bettered his own world records for the clean and jerk and total lifts.
But he did have the consolation of a new Asian Games record total of 410kg - smashing the long-standing mark of 400kg set by Bakytbek Ahtemov of Kazakhstan in Busan 2002 - after a clean and jerk of 221kg.
Mop-topped Qatari Fares Elbakh came second on 381kg and proved a fans' favourite as he was surrounded by a huge crowd of giggling teenage girls and posed for pictures with them after the medals ceremony. 


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