Expectations were met and somehow still exceeded by super heavyweight weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia. He entered Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as the favorite to win gold at the 2021 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships. He held all three world records in the +109-kilogram class at the start of the contest and he leaves with his fifth World Championships gold medal and a set of new world records for both lifts and total. Below is Talakhadze’s full performance, where he went a perfect six-for-six in attempts on Dec. 17, 2021:
2021 IWF World Championship Results — Lasha Talakhadze | +109KG
- Snatch
- 210 kilograms (463 pounds)
- 218 kilograms (480.6 pounds)
- 225 kilograms (496 pounds) — World Record
- Clean & Jerk
- 247 kilograms (544.5 pounds)
- 257 kilograms (566.6 pounds)
- 267 kilograms (588.6 pounds) — World Record
- Total
- 492 kilograms (1,084.7 pounds) — World Record
The +109-kilogram podium saw Verazdat Lalayan and Gor Minasyan of Armenia stand in second and third place, respectively, next to Talakhadze. Check out Talakhadze’s world record clean & jerk in the video below, courtesy of the IWF’s Instagram page:
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With this performance, Talakhadze holds every world record in the history of the super heavyweight class as his 267-kilogram (588.6 pounds) clean & jerk surpassed 1980 Olympic Games gold medalist Leonid Taranenko‘s 266-kilogram (586.4-pound) lift in the +110-kilogram class. Despite multiple instances of weight category restructuring, Taranenko’s held the all-time heaviest competition clean & jerk prior to Talakhadze’s achievement in Tashkent.
Talakhadze advanced all three world records he held coming into the contest at +109-kilograms. He improved upon his previous snatch and clean & jerk world records by two kilograms each. He furthered the world record total four kilograms from 488 kilograms to 492 kilograms — just eight kilograms short of his previously stated goal of 500 kilograms (1,102.3 pounds).
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With this win, Talakhadze’s trophy room is home to five IWF World Championship gold medals (2015, 2017-19, 2021), two Olympic Games gold medals (Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020), and five European Championships gold medals (2016-19, 2021).
Featured image: @iwfnet on Instagram