Topic: More Observations-Junior Worlds

[Mark Cannella]

The 58kg A session ended today and the Chinese girl didn't disappoint.  She hit 110 and 133.  The 133 gave her I think a new Junior World Record.  She missed it on the 2nd due to stepping back on the jerk, but her third was money and hit the slot.

The 69's finally had a non-Chinese winner and some interesting notes.
First of all, there was a grandstand full of Iranians at the venue that were local Malaysians.  They cheered misses from countries like China, like you and I cheer Osama Bin Laden being yanked off this planet.  They were loud and boisterous.

The Iranian ended up third and this crowd let everyone know about it.  The Albanian finished first and beat a Chinese lifter.  The pulls on most of these lifters was wicked fast with good bar technique, but every so often you would have a Turk place the bar on his thigh and fly underneath.  There are simply different ways to snatch big weights and it showed with the different techniques employed.

Someone mentioned that the super Iranian(s) both? did 180/220 with a 300kg bsq in training.  Should be interesting to watch that whether it is two guys or simply one.  Reza is here and everyone stops to watch his every move.  Tim and Drew got the perfunctory picture with him a few days ago. Tim was pretty happy.

A few other notes, Euros like to smoke.  Most of you know that, but always interesting to see a coach and their athlete smoke together in the venue and immediately after they lifted.

The other item of note is the fact that these athletes are super lean.  Most look almost like bodybuilders.  Every so often there is a lifter that is not, but pretty typical that they are.  Of course, some of the women, cough, are just downright, not right.

One of the former Bulgarian bad arses, Alexander Roumanov,(sp) is working with the Colombians. We struck up a convo in the shuttle bus and Ivan and Gwen's name came up pretty quick and so did Carlos and Joni Andica.  Small world, this Weightlifting family and let me tell you, our issues pale in comparison to what I see on the IWF level. As much as we struggle to push past the negativity, it is even bigger on the world stage.  Like Metallica, sad but true.

I hope to hang out a bit and watch some more sessions tomorrow and training sessions. 

Carpe Diem....Seize the day is what I say.  Hopefully, our lifters will do that also.

Mark