By Brian Oliver
All three of Europe’s Olympic champions were winners on the platform at the opening ceremony for the 2025 European Championships in Chisinau, Moldova on Saturday evening.
Karlos Nasar from Bulgaria and Solfrid Koanda from Norway won the 2024 EWF-AIPS Weightlifter of the Year awards and super-heavyweight hero Lasha Talakhadze from Georgia was presented with an EWF gold award for sporting merit.
Super-heavyweight Talakhadze, who was male weightlifter of the year in 2021, 2022 and 2023, was recently elected President of the Georgia Weightlifting Federation and is taking a break from competition. He was on the platform at the Chisinau Arena to receive his award but will not be lifting at the Championships, which begin on Sunday and finish on April 21.
Nasar has not yet arrived in Moldova. His award was accepted by the Bulgaria Federation President Stefan Botev, a double world champion, who said: “This is a very nice award for Karlos and our team, and let’s hope we can carry on winning again this year – why not?”
The EWF-AIPS Athlete for the Future award for women went to Aleksandra Grigoryan from Armenia, a 19-year-old who won world and European junior titles in 2024.
The men’s winner was 16-year-old Ramazan Efe Yilmaz from Turkiye, the world and European youth champion. The award was received by Mr. Talat Unlu President of Turkiye Weightlifting Federation.
Two technical officials received EWF awards for their service to the sport, Dr Zurab Kakhabrishvili from Georgia and Dorthe Lauridsen from Denmark.
At the end of the ceremony in a very impressive venue, which featured live music and a virtual roll-call of the 42 teams taking part, as well as awards and speeches, the new EWF president Astrit Hasani said: “We look forward to seeing our fantastic athletes perform at their best here on this stage. Hopefully we will see them breaking European and world records.”
Standing alongside him was Koanda, who arguably has the best chance of the 329 entries of setting a world record. The Olympic 81kg champion is seeking her fourth straight European title at 87kg, and has been lifting well in training.
Her best numbers at 87kg are 123kg in snatch, 160kg in clean and jerk, and 280kg in total. The world standards at this weight, which have never been met since new weight categories were introduced in 2018, are 132-164-294.
“It means a lot to be recognised by the European Weightlifting Federation, thank you,” said Koanda, who was also the AIPS-EWF winner in 2022.
“I am so grateful and proud to be awarded this for the second time and keep pinning Norway on the weightlifting map. I hope this can be an inspiration to other smaller weightlifting nations that it is possible to break through by continuing to invest in the athletes you have.
“I am where I am today because of the support around me. Although weightlifting is an individual sport- you cannot reach the top alone.”
Dignitaries who received EWF awards were: Dan Perciun, Moldova’s Minister of Education and Research; Spyros Capralos, President of European Olympic Committees; Ion Ceban, mayor of Chisinau; Nicolae Juravschi, Moldova NOC President; Stefan Calancea, the Chisinau Arena Director; and Charles Camenzuli, AIPS Europe President.
From the weightlifting family, awards were made to IWF President Mohammed Jalood; continental federation Presidents Khaled Mehalhel (Africa) and Jose Quinones (Pan America); Antonio Conflitti, President of the Moldova Federation; and Asian Federation board member Eshaq Ebrahim Eshaq.