2023 Asian & PanAm Champs (not Games!)

[erpel]

Me thinks Park KOR is in line as the legitimate heiress to Jang Miran. Read: second Korean woman to break 300.

Jang did 272.5 as a Junior, both at age 19 & 20. Then at 21 (Athens 2004) she totaled 302.5. She gained 10kg during this time.

Park at age 19 (last year) did 270, 274 & 281. Today she did 295. She gained about 6kg during this period. However, arguably, unlike young Jang Miran she is already quite heavy at 133kg (Jang was 108kg at her age).

Nonetheless I can see her striving towards 135+175 @ 140kg over the next quad.

[erpel]

More thoughts of the day:

Olympic champion can't qualify for next Olympics because he doesn't want to lose 7kg.
I will never be a fan of Minasyan.
Rostami got all the Iranian hair genes.

Liu Huanhua & Li Dayin will go to WWC as 89, Tian Tao will go to Asian Games as 96 (no 89 there).
Li Wenwen will max out at Asian Games & only do enough to win at WWC (possibly even just weigh in).

I have no idea who Russia would try to qualify at this point besides Kashirina @81 and Romanova @71.

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[strapping]

Full event results uploaded on IWF website https://iwf.sport/results/results-by-events/?event_id=570
I skimmed both sessions.
WSuper

• LI Wenwen CHN: When people say "Lasha doesn't try hard" because his technique isn't shitty at heavy weights, they're wrong. LI Wenwen's coaches reasonably but annoyingly choose submaximal attempts. No competition from SUN Yongjie or LI Yan or non-Chinese lifters, no care. Snatch attempts >143, or Clean and Jerk attempts >184 will have me interested. Otherwise I'll watch the battle for 2nd, which is much more interesting, then half listen/watch Wenwen.
• SON Younghee KOR: Holding on relatively well for an older (not old) athlete at 30 y/o. Her competition with PARK has been interesting to follow over the last few years, and will hopefully be interesting throughout qualification.
• PARK Hyejeong KOR: Massive improvement. Her pulling rhythm and connection to the bar in the snatch are much better than before. Much stronger and slightly more flexible rack position in her clean and jerk. Given the current South Korean technique-load curve, I think she's capable of 170 if she hasn't already done it (and not posted the video prior to Asians/Olympics).
• CHAIDEE Duangaksorn THA: Letting your athletes time out to pull them out of the competition is obnoxious, doubly so when it has been done repeatedly. No shade on her personally, more with the coaches. You have one athlete in the session, why not pull out 5 min after presentations? At least it wasn't done for both snatch and CJ like for other athletes.
• KOVALCHUK Lyubov KAZ: Big improvement over last competition (with increase in BW as she grows). 118+156 is a good result, pending given KAZ, and she has more in the tank with some technical refinement.
• JABBOROVA Tursunoy UZB: Now that she weighs 100kg (suits her frame a lot better), she's no longer doing pause snatches but still does pause cleans on the platform. She has strong legs, please do good mornings 1x/week.

MSuper

• MINASYAN Gor BRN used his legs for like 30% of the snatch pull and immediately hit a personal best. He didn't always stiff leg lifts as much as he has in his senior career.
• MAN Asaad SYR pulling out is not unsurprising, but still disappointing.
• DJANGABAEV Rustam and DJURAEV Akbar both total 437, but Djangabaev does it first. Not sure why Djuraev didn't take 243, but that meant Djangabaev didn't have to take his 3rd clean and jerk.
• Djuraev is on the Simon Martirosyan train. That is outstanding talents with great results at 102, going up to 109 for Tokyo, then going to super and lifting less than you did as a 109. Not due to (maximal) strength reasons, both of their techniques have just massively degraded.
• JO Seongbin sitting in 10th, I wonder how long he's been lifting.
• YOUSEFI Alireza IRI is the new Bahador Moulaei except Moulaei had better use of the legs in the snatch and better hair (even as a senior). Lots of physical potential though, and an excellent jerk on 246. SHARIFIKELARIJANI AYAT IRI was only non-East-Asian super to use his legs in the pull. Not sure why Ali DAVOUDI was absent, but both Iranian supers in attendance were well behind Davoudi's Bogota total.

General competition thoughts or opinions

• Rostami didn't get all of the Iranian hair genes. He has uniranian hair genes - his absent chest hair went to his head.
• LIAO Guifang CHN did the most interesting lifts of the competition to me. Guifang > Dayin, Tao, Huanhua. Having said that, the three way battle for Chinese 89 qualification is looking very interesting.
• Why wasn't Indonesia here? Indonesia sent only 5 women and 2 men. SEAG cash prizes, lack of funding or internal politics? Ricko Saputra was 2kg off breaking Eko Yuli Irawan's 300 total for #2 OQR, and Irawan just did 303 in Cambodia today. On the other hand, Windy Cantika Aisah competed even though she clearly should have just weighed in and pulled out. WIJAYANA Luluk Diana Tri just hit 173@49 (78+95) and closely missed 97 CJ for a 175 total, 1kg below Aisah's 176 in Bogota.
• On the other other hand (foot?), some of the Filipino athletes (INAN Lovely, CENIZA John) have just competed again at SEA Games, after competing at Asians.
• btw sea games stream with vietnamese commentary
• There have been understandable complaints about the qualification system only requiring one big total, in regards to attempt selection as well as drug testing. There are many reasons why the current qualification system was written the way it is prior to IWF tampering, and also reasons why other proposed qualification systems were not chosen. A system similar to Tokyo and a mid-sized novel were also proposed, despite the IOC asking for a simpler system after the Tokyo qualification dramas. It's not a perfect system, but it's realistic and easy to understand.
• If you bomb out because you think opening at PB -2kg (or being injured and opening PB -4) is a good idea for maximising your total, that's not the qualifying system's fault. That's a skill issue (@coaches).
• Did South Korea just use Bak Joohyo to deal with the FOMO of not being in Eurovision? They've let in non-Europeans before and there are enough amateur singers in the Korean weightlifting team to put something together. Maybe a duet with Kim Suhyeon.
• Speaking of, Korean DJ takes the bronze medal for my entertainment at this competition, behind gold Guifang and close silver Tian Tao 222.
• Kazakhstan looked great. We'll find out if they were in 8 years. Turkmenistan mostly looked terrible and their attempt selection looked worse half the time.

[strapping]

A North Korean would spice things up but they're probably busy dealing with not COVID and not testing.

notlikethis.jpg

Squat jerkers and Power Jerkers.

It isn't a big cohort, so now I'm conjecturing completely out of my arse here, but I have wondered whether squat jerkers gain stability in the snatch by the number of very heavy extra reps they take performing squat jerks, and then are to an extent able to export it over - Lu being the obvious example. However, power jerkers, the benefit seems to help certain body types only with their snatch, long arm/leg lifters with shorter trunks, like Jhonatan Rivas, Li Dayin, CJ Cummings ( I believe his snatch improved as he started power jerking), whilst the shorter armed lifters like Tian Tao and David Benzhanyan it negatively effects their snatch due to the variables that are introduced in getting under the bar.

I've thought about this in passing and I've wondered if it could be true, but I think there are a great many confounding variables. In no particular order

• Push/squat jerkers are usually just super strong in the legs, carrying over to the snatch. See Aleksander Karapetyan.
• Natural history and non-linear progress can have a big part to play in the apparent improvement in the snatch when switching jerk styles.
• I think in terms of physical preparation, the squat jerk can be useful due to the increased load/decreased grip width putting a lot more stress on the scapular muscles. The increase scap strength *may* then take some load off the glenohumeral joint/deltoid/rotator cuff in snatches. I don't think this applies to push jerks.
• wrt giraffe pushers being good at snatches, i kinda wonder if simply being long limbed and being strong in the legs (necessary to push jerk after a clean) is what makes them good at snatches. CJ Cummings is abnormally strong in the legs for someone of his body type. As far as I'm concerned he has equally strong legs as Shi Zhiyong, even though he squats less.
• I think for nugget lifters at professional level, often pulling power is more of a limiting factor rather than overhead stability. Maybe that's why they don't benefit as much.

This isn't to say that it can't carry over or that you're wrong - I think it is very plausible and likely does in some cases. I'm just hesitant to draw conclusions based off difficult data to work with

[Hawkpeter]

Women's Supers, from Silver down, is right up near the top classes I am looking forward to at Worlds. Son totaled 9kg more than in Colombia, Park will surely total 300, Chaidee will be another lifter to push Campbell and who knows what Robles will be able to hit.

I've thought about this in passing and I've wondered if it could be true, but I think there are a great many confounding variables. In no particular order

• Push/squat jerkers are usually just super strong in the legs, carrying over to the snatch. See Aleksander Karapetyan.
• Natural history and non-linear progress can have a big part to play in the apparent improvement in the snatch when switching jerk styles.
• I think in terms of physical preparation, the squat jerk can be useful due to the increased load/decreased grip width putting a lot more stress on the scapular muscles. The increase scap strength *may* then take some load off the glenohumeral joint/deltoid/rotator cuff in snatches. I don't think this applies to push jerks.
• wrt giraffe pushers being good at snatches, i kinda wonder if simply being long limbed and being strong in the legs (necessary to push jerk after a clean) is what makes them good at snatches. CJ Cummings is abnormally strong in the legs for someone of his body type. As far as I'm concerned he has equally strong legs as Shi Zhiyong, even though he squats less.
• I think for nugget lifters at professional level, often pulling power is more of a limiting factor rather than overhead stability. Maybe that's why they don't benefit as much.

This isn't to say that it can't carry over or that you're wrong - I think it is very plausible and likely does in some cases. I'm just hesitant to draw conclusions based off difficult data to work with

Qualitative analysis might be the easiest to draw on - I'd really like to ask the lifters and coaches to see what they think.