By Brian Oliver
Karlos Nasar made a sensational start in his new weight category of 96kg at the European Championships in Moldova. Within six minutes he had taken the snatch world record from Lesman Paredes, and with the last of his six good lifts he bettered the record on total, which had been set six and a half years ago by Sohrab Moradi. That just leaves Tian Tao’s 231kg clean and jerk to complete the set, which will no doubt be one of Nasar’s targets at the World Championships in Norway in October. He took the European clean and jerk record from Yauheni Tsikhantsou today.
Nasar made 188-229-417, finishing 38kg clear of his nearest challenger Revaz Davitadze from Georgia. His clean and jerk medal was presented by Lasha Talakhadze. Nasar’s performance was all the remarkable given that he weighed in lightest of the eight athletes on 93.35kg, and arrived in the warm-up room only 12 minutes before the start because of stomach trouble.
“It was bad yesterday, OK today,” said Stefan Botev, President of the Bulgaria Weightlifting Federation.
Davtitadze made 174-205-379, and third-placed David Hovhannisyan from Armenia 173-203-376. Nasar’s victory continues his barely believable run of achievements since he won the first of his three European titles in Yerevan, Armenia in April, 2023 when he was 18. His tally since then is Olympic gold, a first senior world title, those three contintental victories, and wins at the World Cup and a Grand Prix during Olympic qualifying.
He has set 22 world records – 11 junior and 11 senior – to add to the many others he broke before Yerevan across all age groups. And he did all this despite suffering a serious achilles injury that kept him out of the 2023 World Championships and off the platform for seven months that year.
The women’s 81kg went to Elena Erighina, who became Moldova’s first ever female continental champion when she made a career-best total. Erighina finished ahead of Ilke Lagrou, who must undergo surgery next week after achieving the best result ever by a Belgian woman.
Erighina deserved her victory after a run of near misses at the European Championships. “I told myself last year ‘Next time it’s in Moldova, I must win it, I can’t be second again.’ It was so frustrating because it was always just one kilo that stopped me,” she said.
In Sofia last April Erighina was second, 1kg behind Weronika Zielinska from Poland, who finished third today. In 2021 she also had to settle for silver, 1kg behind the winner, and in 2022 and 2023 she was 1kg short of silver and bronze medals. “At last I won, and now I can have a party with my family,” she said. That family includes two sisters who are competing in these Championships, Ecaterina who was 16th from the B group behind Elena, and Anastasia in the super-heavyweights on Monday.
Erighina made 106-136-242, Lagrou 104-134-238 and Zielinska 105-132-237. Lagrou, a former hammer thrower, did remarkably well to finish second after breaking a foot in August, then tearing a shoulder muscle at a training camp in January. “I didn’t do more than 94-125 in training,” she said after making the biggest total ever by a woman from Belgium.
Lagrou was given the all-clear to compete by her doctor, but only after her coach Bieke Vandenabeele took instructions on how to replace a dislocated shoulder “just in case”. Lagrou, 27, will have surgery next week. “It will take four months to recover, so not much training for the World Championships (in October),” she said. Katrina Feklistova from Great Britain, who won snatch bronze on 105kg, has also had injury problems. “I had to take six months off with a stress fracture of my back,” she said after finishing sixth on 229kg.
The results make Eyglo Sturludottir’s 71kg victory on Thursday look all the better. Nobody in the 76kg or 81kg categories has matched her winning total of 244kg.