At the XXXIII Summer Olympic Games in Paris, weightlifters competed for medals in the weight category up to 102 kg, in which Turkmenistan was represented by Davranbek Hasanbaev, a graduate of the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, currently a serviceman of the State Migration Service.
The 23-year-old master of sports from the village of Garamazy of the gengeshlik named after Nurmuhammet Andalib in Akdepe etrap of Dashoguz velayat, earned the right to debut at the Olympics by competing in the World Cup held in Phuket, Thailand, in April this year. He achieved there his career-best result of 392 kg (snatch – 187 kg, clean and jerk – 205 kg), placing him in the TOP-10 weightlifters in the up to 102 kg category and making an extraordinary leap in the world ranking from 26th to 8th place.
At the 2024 World Cup, Davranbek successfully completed all three snatch attempts, lifting 180 kg, 185 kg and 187 kg consecutively. At the Paris Olympics, he managed 180 kg in his first attempt. In the second attempt, his coaches requested 187 kg. Davranbek lifted this weight overhead but could not fix it. In the final attempt, he went for a personal record of 188 kg but again failed to hold the barbell overhead. As a result, after the first exercise, our weightlifter was 6 kg behind the leaders, Liu Huanhua from China and Garik Karapetyan from Armenia, who both lifted 186 kg.
In the clean and jerk, Davranbek lifted 190 kg only on his second attempt and failed to lift 200 kg in the final attempt, finishing with a total of 370 kg in the combined event, 22 kg less than his best result shown at the 2024 World Cup.
The gold medal in this weight category was won by 22-year-old world record holder in the clean and jerk and combined event, 2023 world and Asian champion Liu Huanhua, with a result of 406 kg (186 + 220). He became the first Olympic champion in China among weightlifters weighing over 100 kg. In his final clean and jerk attempt, he tried to set a new world record of 233 kg, but the barbell did not yield to the Chinese athlete.
The silver medalist was 24-year-old two-time world champion and Tokyo Olympic champion in the weight category up to 109 kg, Akbar Juraev from Uzbekistan, with a total of 404 kg (185 + 219). The bronze medal went to 25-year-old Belarusian weightlifter Yevgeny Tikhontsov, competing under a neutral flag, with a total of 402 kg (183 + 219).
Thus, Turkmen athletes concluded their performance at the Paris Olympics. Six athletes represented our country in four sports – judo, athletics, swimming and weightlifting.
Judokas Serdar Rahimov (up to 66 kg) and Maysa Pardaeva (up to 57 kg) each won one bout but finished their Olympic journey just short of the quarterfinals. Swimmers Musa Zhalaev and Aynura Primova did not achieve their best results in their signature events – the men's 100 meters freestyle and the women's 100 meters backstroke. The only representative of "the queen of sports" in our team, Valentina Meredova, also failed to reach the semifinals in the 100 meters, but she showed her best result of the current season – 11.95 seconds. Additionally, at the Paris Games, she demonstrated the Olympic spirit by coming to the aid of fallen South Sudanese runner Lucia Morris along with Lao runner Silina Fa Afai at the 70-meter mark of the preliminary race. They stayed with the injured athlete until medical personnel arrived and evacuated her on a stretcher, showing that human values such as mutual assistance and compassion are more important than any competition.
Ahead lies a new four-year Olympic cycle, giving our sports Federations' coaching staff ample time to analyze the performance of Turkmen athletes at the 2024 Olympics to ensure they will be in better shape for the next Olympic Games.
