Weightlifting Forums

M61
A lot of greats have bombed in their last Olympic appearance - Rigert, Alekseyev, Taranenko Suleymanoglu, Khraparty, Khakisvili, Weller, Sagir, Yong, so no real shame Eko just not having enough to snag that 5th medal.

Not for the first time this quad, Italy could be accused of opening too heavy. Would Massida have a better chance of snagging 134-136 if they opened lighter? Given what Silachai ended up with, they may not have medalled anyhow, and Morris would have had an interesting choice at 3rd or 2nd on his final attempt if Massida had made 299-302.

Silachai chose the right time to PB his total. I didn't see that coming.

How bush league does it look when we are still taping up logos during a session? And likewise for having to roll the bar back/forward/to-the-side so that lifters can get away from slippery platform graphics?


W49
If you're going to eat crow, you should eat it while its hot. I thought Cambei was going to be one of the lifters opening too heavy and getting in a bad position on the board, but in reality she was the stand out performer. Her 3rd attempt snatch was the lift of the session for me. Huge congratulations to her and her team.
Khamboa too with her 3rd attempt snatch, great lift. Then followed it with sensible attempts whilst the lifters who I thought would perform better, DelaCruz and Suzuki to me looked a bit flat with some of their lifts. Both looked capable of more but it struck me that they ended up with some long breaks between attempts which seemed to lead to sub-optimal arousal for competition attempts.

Chanu too I had the wrong read on, she's been training abroad and I thought she would be in better shape. In the end, the qualifying trends followed into the competition. Hou with a mega clutch C&J at the end and proving to ultimately be a better lifter than the snatches told us she was.

So far better than Tokyo, i.e. harsh calls but not outrageous calls.

59
Snatch

• Magistris didn't bomb in the snatch, walks away with 96
• Lots of lifts in the 100-105 range, the competition has shaped up very well
• The Australian commentator calling this power lifting has to be annoying weightlifters on purpose by this point
• Outstanding lifting from VENEGAS Anyelin VEN, 3/3 up to 102. I think she could have been capable of 103 or at a stretch, 104 today.
• Kamila Konotop UKR does a scruffy 104 opener, then appears to pull her hamstring on a rushed 106 deadlift
• KUO Hsing-Chun TPE snatches 101 ok but with a weak turnover, misses 105 and then makes 105 (lucky not to get juried for a pressout).
• ALVAREZ Yenny COL in great shape, 3/3 up to 105. Maximum lift for today and a new personal best.
• CHARRON Maude CAN not to be outdone, goes 3/3 up to 106.
• LUO Shifang is still the top dog, 3/3 up to a strong save on 107 (also maximal).

Clean and jerk

• Magistris doesn't bomb and manages to hang on to her last clean and jerk.
• Injured Konotop makes a light power clean and jerk on 123, then doesn't make her remaining attempts.
• Ando opens on a 2kg PB jerk, misses twice and then makes it.
• Anyelin Venegas does a good opener on 122, looking good for 128. She then takes 128 for a maximal lift. 134 last ditch effort for bronze having already placed fourth but no dice.
• Charron with a heavy but reasonable opener on 126 and makes it well.
• Up to 130 for Kuo's opener and she misses the lift because these elbows (leg drive) ain't loyal. She takes it again and makes it convincingly.
• Maude goes up to 130 for the 2nd and she makes a tough, fighting lift to provisionally take silver. She tries to extend her total by going to 132 but unfortunately she just can't quite stick the jerk. She finishes with 236.
• Amongst this, Luo has taken 134 on her 2nd attempt to get up to 241.
• Kuo goes up to 137 to try to beat Luo for the gold but it's not close, too heavy.
• Luo doesn't withdraw but instead goes out to the crowd to say hi as the timer runs down.

Fire Corbu.

I'm fine with the M73 result.

Shi almost had me convinced he was back in good form after the 165 snatch

W59
We were spoiled with the competitiveness of those snatches. I would not have predicted 9 makes at 103+.

Alvarez surprised me - then surprised me agains with her C&J. Kuo must have put some doubt in the Chinese coaches mind right up until that opening jerk, Luo is just too good. She might have the best jerk in weightlifting of any athlete. It doesnt matter if the clean is taxing.

Maude continues to be for me the gold standard and model of technique and composure. When someone asks me, 'who should I watch?' my answer is Maude Charron.

M73
Now that I've had some time to reflect, I get it that it was a unique circumstance of so many lifters all thinking that there was a bronze medal up for grabs if only they could yeet a PB total. So opening heavy for so many of them, I can see some justification. The missed opening C7J reps is what gave me that impression. We also have to accept that its the same coaching fraternity that seemingly takes wise attempts for the 59's and arrogant short-sighted ones in the 73's. The circumstances, multi factoral, are just different.

I can imagine Shi probably just said after the snatches that he's good to go and just open above 190 and make riski go for a WR. Was it arrogance to not just secure the silver with 185 type opener then take 190 and whatever? The plan was 191 then what? 194/195? Why not take essentially your last warm up on the platform?

As it turns out, the podium made all their C&J's. If this session doesn't give even further support to 'snatch what you can, C&J what you must', then I don't know what does. Another medal for Thailand, Andreev with the performance of his career, Rizki showing how reliable his C&J is, and Rahmat must have looked at that session and just thought what could have been.

Shi gets added to the Olympic champion list of late career bomb outs - ironically the other Shi Zhiyong (born 1980) who won gold in Athens at 62kg, also bombed out in the C&J in the following games in Beijing.

Mixed feelings about 73. Certainly better than the 61s, a lot of bombs but that doesn't quite tell the whole story. Having said that, I don't think many of these lifters were at their best for this competition.

Juniansyah is a deserving winner. I think 191 was the right weight to select from China to beat Juniansyah IMO, Shi just understandably couldn't secure the lift. Ultimately it just comes down to whether or not you care about coming second and not taking too many attempts to worsen the situation. I think straight to 191 was fine given their goals/values.

Shi's superlative snatch compared to the rest of the field shows how important it is to develop pulling strength through the middle of the pull.

Nobody wants to see a lifter like Shi go for bronze (at least in the Olympics).

strapping wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2024 10:58 am Shi's superlative snatch compared to the rest of the field shows how important it is to develop pulling strength through the middle of the pull.

I have done the hand-math of his barbell velocity and he maintains his speed through the transition phase of the second pull. I do not know any lifter who does not slow down during this phase.