By Brian Oliver
Germany had its best European Championships result for seven years when Raphael Friedrich surprised the home favourite Marin Robu in front of a noisy audience at the Chisinau Arena. Genna Toko Kegne won the women’s 76kg for a second time. Her only two international results have produced senior European titles for the 22-year-old Italian.
The tight 89kg contest between Friedrich and Robu was arguably the best men’s session to date at these Championships. Robu earned the loudest cheer of the week when he edged ahead at halfway with his final snatch, but he could not match Friedrich in clean and jerk.
Friedrich, 24, successfully opened 3kg higher on 198kg to take the lead. Both men made their second lifts, and Friedrich was able to decline his final attempt after Robu failed on 205kg. The top two were a long way clear of Lorenzo Tarquini, junior continental champion in 2022, who was third on 157-196-353. Friedrich made 171-205-376 and Robu 173-202-375. Fifth-placed Lucas Mueller also won a medal for Germany, a bronze in snatch on 159kg. That means all four of Germany’s A Group lifters have won medals in Chisinau. It might become a full house of five when Kiara Klug competes in the women’s super-heavyweights on Monday.
That is very good news for a team which failed to qualify a single athlete for the Paris Olympic Games. Recent changes in personnel have made a difference.
Michael Vater, who has moved up from junior team coach to Sports Director at the German Federation, said, “This is the beginning of a new generation. This generation is for LA 2028 and we have good juniors and youths coming through in our plans for 2032. “We are trying instil to instil a new atmosphere with a younger team and I could already feel it at a training camp in Berlin before these Championships. I started working on the changes in January when I knew I had the job.” There are seven changed positions, either new appointments or new roles.
Friedrich struggled with injury problems during the Paris qualifying programme. Since last summer he has improved his best numbers across the board by a wide margin. “We just ran out of time with him for Paris,” said Vater. “He is still young, and now he is doing well.”
This was a second disappointment for Robu. He was edged out of third place at the Paris Olympic Games by the Italian Antonino Pizzolato in controversial circumstances. Pizzolato’s final attempt got three red lights from the referees but was deemed a good lift after a jury review. The Moldovan government has backed a legal challenge against the decision, and is waiting on a date for a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, said the Moldova Weightlifting Federation President Antonio Conflitti.
Robu is already thinking about Los Angeles 2028. “I’m the right age, I have the motivation, I can lift much more,” he said.
There were seven athletes on the podium in the women’s 76kg, in which none of the snatch medallists finished in the top three on total. The numbers all round were a good way lower than those in the lighter 71kg on Thursday.
Toko Kegne was the only athlete to make all three clean and jerks, finishing 100-133-233 ahead of Anna Amroyan from Armenia on 100-131-231. Celia Gold from Israel was third on a career-best 100-130-230. Maria Kireva from Bulgaria, the leader at halfway, dropped down four places on 106-120-226, and snatch silver medallist Iryna Dombrovska from Ukraine was fourth on 105-124-229. The British teenager Bella Brown was third on snatch from the B Group on 100kg.
Milena Khachatryan from Armenia took clean and jerk silver and finished fifth on 226kg.