Great success of Dutch Weightlifting Association – first Dutch female European golds
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The Dutch Nikki Löwik (b.2001) won gold for the snatch, the clean & jerk and the total in the -76kg class for U23 athletes at the 2022 European championships in Durres, Albania. It is the first time a Dutch female has won an international medal outside of the masters categories.
After snatching 92 and 95 kilos, she ended with a convincing personal best of 97 kilos. After her 110 and 114 clean and jerk, her total was enough to beat the Finnish Jutta Selin by 10 kilos. Having already won gold and not wanting to aggravate a recent injury, the Dutch team decided to forfeit the final clean & jerk attempt.
Löwik, a law student from the east of the Netherlands, was a competitive gymnast until the age of 16, after which she picked up CrossFit. She found her love for weightlifting there, after which she came under the tutelage of her current coach, Jeremy Regensburg, in December 2018.
Her first official competition was only 3 months later, after which she won several national championships and other competitions. Over the course of these years, the Dutch Weightlifting Association noticed her potential and funded her participation on several international competitions, with the U23 Europeans being the most recent as well as most succesful.
Source: NGB
photo credit: ISAAC MORILLAS