Turkmen weightlifters won seven medals at the World Youth Championships held in Lima, Peru. The awards were contested by 282 athletes under the age of 17 from 52 countries in ten men's and ten women's weight categories.
The Turkmenistan team consisted of seven athletes, three of whom brought back three gold, one silver and three bronze medals.
The winner of the world championship was 17-year-old Suleiman Jafarov from Lebap. The 11th grade student of Turkmenabat secondary school No.5 achieved this success in the weight category up to 102 kg, where he competed against 10 weightlifters from nine countries. In the first exercise, Suleiman successfully used all three attempts at 137 kg, 141 kg and 143 kg, winning gold in the snatch. In the clean and jerk, Suleiman, realizing two attempts at 165 kg and 170 kg, became the bronze medalist.
As a result, Suleiman Jafarov scored 313 kg in the total, which put him on the highest step of the podium. The same score was achieved by the gold medalist in the clean and jerk, Ahmad Shammaa from Syria, but he became second, as he showed this result after our athlete. The third place was taken by Mashaal Mahmoud from Egypt, with a score of 310 kg (140 + 170).
Suleiman started practicing weightlifting at the 3rd sports school in Turkmenabat under his father, Bakhtiyar Jafarov. Currently, the young athlete trains in the youth national team of Turkmenistan under the guidance of head coach Ahmet Saryev.
Three medals for the Turkmenistan team were won by Ogulshat Amanova, an 8th grade student of the 104th school in Buzmein etrap of Ashgabat. In the weight category up to 49 kg, where 22 weightlifters from 17 countries competed, she successfully used five out of six scoring attempts, winning gold in the snatch (77 kg), bronze in the clean and jerk (91 kg) and silver in the total (168 kg).
In the final protocol, 14-year-old Ogulshat, trained by her father Gurbandurdy Amanov, was one kilogram behind the 17-year-old European champion among girls, Lucia Gonzales Borrego from Spain, with a score of 169 kg (76 + 93), and five kilograms ahead of the third-placed 15-year-old Margot Kochetova from France, with a score of 163 kg (74 + 89).
This was Ogulshat’s third appearance at the World Youth Championships. In 2022, she debuted at these competitions in Mexico at the age of 12, competing in the 45 kg category and finishing sixth among 12 athletes, setting three personal records in the snatch (61 kg), clean and jerk (75 kg), and total (136 kg). Last year, she won the world championship in the 45 kg category with a score of 156 kg, and this year, she became the world vice-champion in the 49 kg category, improving her previous achievement by 12 kg.
Another Turkmen weightlifter, Didarbek Jumabaev, a 10th-grade student of the capital's sports school "Olymp", won the bronze medal in the clean and jerk (155 kg) in the weight category up to 67 kg, where 18 athletes from 15 countries competed. However, in the snatch, the student of Baymamet Kulamov showed a sixth-place result (117 kg) and finished fourth in the total (272 kg), trailing by 10 kg from the bronze medalist, Alexander Balji from Moldova, with a score of 282 kg (127 + 155). The winner of the world championship in this weight category was Hussein Hamuda from Egypt, with a score of 286 kg (128 + 158), one kilogram ahead of the silver medalist, Akzhol Kurmanbek from Kazakhstan, with a score of 285 kg (129 kg + 156).
Among other Turkmen athletes, Shabnam Kerimbaeva finished fifth in the 45 kg category with a score of 142 kg (64 + 78), Mayagozel Hurmenova finished 11th in the 55 kg category with a score of 144 kg (65 + 79), and Zybagul Soimusheva finished 10th in the 59 kg category with a score of 151 kg (66 + 81).
During the days of the World Youth Championships, an anti-doping education seminar was held at the headquarters of the Peruvian Olympic Committee, attended by around 75 athletes, including those from Turkmenistan. It was organized by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) together with the International Testing Agency (ITA).
