Alkass Digital
Qatar’s Olympic hero Fares Ibrahim yesterday emerged as the star of the day at the Qatar Cup IWF Grand Prix II when he clinched a golden double in front of home crowd at Aspire Ladies Hall.
The 102 kg competition last night unfolded with an epic face-off between Fares and the reigning world champion Liu Huanhua before the Qatari star finished with two gold medals in clean and jerk and the total weight, and a bronze in snatch, lifting 176-224 to make a total of 400 kg for the first time since Tokyo 2020 where he became Qatar’s first Olympic champion.
Fares and Huanhua were the only two contenders battling for the gold after the weight was increased to 217 kg. Fares successfully lifted 224 kg in his second attempt in the clean and jerk, while the Chinese star registered 222. Huanhua then failed to make 225 finishing with a total of 398 kg. With the gold medal already secured, Fares decided to push further, attempting to lift 232 what would have been a new world record. However, he failed to do so, finishing on 224 which took his total to 400.
Huanhua finished with 176-222-398, claiming the silver medals in the clean and jerk and the total weight. Don Oblog from Samoa took home the bronze medal in the net with a weight of 216 kg.
“I’m feeling OK but I could have done better, I wanted the world record,” Fares, who has already booked his ticket to the Paris 2024 Games for his third consecutive appearance at the Olympics, told the International Weightlifting Federation’s website.
“The joy of winning and of hitting that 400 just made me take it too easy,” he said.
“I’ve been training hard for two months, working harder than I can remember for this. It was good for a comeback. I’m in my home country and it had to be done, I couldn’t have lost here. Now I’m going to go for a nice steak,” Fares said.
“Hopefully at the Asian Championships or in Thailand (the last two qualifiers in February and April) I’ll get that world record and a much bigger total than this,” he added.
Earlier, in the snatch, Fares finished third behind gold winner Garik Karapetyan of Armenia. The junior world record holder, Karapetyan topped the table, lifting a weight of 180 kg.
Belarusian former world and European champion Yauheni Tsikhantsou lifted 177 to finish second in snatch, but he was fifth overall after failing to go beyond 210 as he lifted 387 kg in total.
In the women’s 81kg, Liang Xiaomei of China won a trio of gold medals lifting 123-161-284.
Liang retired after her fifth good lift had given her victory and world records in clean and jerk and total. Her compatriot Wang Zhouyu, the 87kg Olympic champion, was beaten into second place. Wang failed with a world record clean and jerk attempt on 160 kg and finished 120-148-268.
Eileen Cikamatana from Australia made 112-149-261 and claimed the bronze medal in the snatch, silver in the clean and jerk, and another bronze in total.
The awards ceremony witnessed the presence of esteemed dignitaries, including Qatar Olympic Committee’s first Vice President and Qatar, Arab and Asian Weightlifting Federations President Mohammed Yousef Al Mana; Yemeni Minister of Youth and Sports H E Nayef Saleh Al Bakri; and First Vice President of the Yemeni Olympic Committee Khaled Al Khulaifi.