Thai Women Dominate 4th World University Weightlifting Championship 

By Andrea Signor

 

Thai athletes took advantage of their home turf at the fourth World University Weightlifting 

Championship, Dec. 5-8. Female athletes claimed gold in six weight classes, going first and second in the 75+ kg category while male athletes took one gold and two silvers in the 56-kg, 62-kg and 69-kg weight classes.

 

Athletes from 28 countries converged on Chiang Mai, Thailand, for the event, which saw Olympic veterans and hopefuls. Thailand’s Panida Khamsri’s score totaled more than 20 kgs above second-place finisher Mizuki Yanagida from Japan. Khamsri, who competes in the 48-kg weight class, totaled 182 kgs. Khamsri’s teammate, Sutanan Kittima, totaled 196 kgs in the 53-kg weight class while Sukanya Srisurat continued the country’s gold-medal trend in the 58-kg class with a total of 215 kgs.

Pimsiri Sirikaew and Wiriya Suwannaratana each claimed gold in their weight classes with totals of 235- and 212-kgs, respectively. Chitchanok Pulsabsakul and Praeonapa Khenjantuek claimed first and second in the 75+ kg class. Canadian and 2012 Olympic athlete Marie- Ève Beauchemin-Nadeau took gold in the 75-kg class with a total of 235 kgs, edging out Brazil’s Jaqueline Ferreira.

Witoon Mingmoon kept Thailand’s momentum going by earning gold in the 56-kg weight class with a total of 248 kgs, but the streak ended when China’s Yu Tao usurped Thailand’s Thawatchai Phonchiangsa for a total of 285 kgs in the 62-kg weight class. Thai athletes were again thwarted in the 69-kg weight class when France’s Bernardin Ledoux Kingué Matam edged out Tairat Bunsuk with a total of 318 kgs. Moldovan athlete Dumitru Captari easily claimed gold in the 77-kg weight class with a total of 350 kgs, almost 35 kilos ahead of second-place finisher Alexandru Rosu from Romania. Polish athletes Adrian Tomasz Pawlicki and Lukasz Roman Grela claimed the top spots in the 85- and 94-kgs weight classes with totals of 312 and 375 kgs. Turkey’s Resul Elvan took gold in the 105-kg weight class with a total of 363 kgs and Hungarian athlete Péter Nagy commanded the 105+ kg weight class with a total of 398 kgs, a solid 13 kgs ahead of second-place finisher Jae-Sang Lee from Korea.

 

Team USA athletes, Angela Candage and Paul Woelmer, earned bronze in their respective weight classes. 

 

Candage, who competes in the women’s 58-kg weight class, earned silver for her 108-kg clean and jerk, but totaled 188 kgs, one kilogram from second-place finisher Carolina Lugo Robles from Mexico. Woelmer competed in the men’s 85-kg weight class, taking third with a total of 290 kgs.

 

The next test for weight lifting athletes comes Dec. 11-14 in Washington, DC, at the American Open.

Related Articles:
USA Secures Redemption At 2014 CrossFit Invitational 
Introducing The 2015 East Coast Championships Athletes
2014 Results With Super Regionals Standards