By Brian Oliver
Two of Europe’s medallists at the Paris Olympics won on a busy penultimate day of the European Championships at the Chisinau Arena in Moldova, and an athlete who finished fourth in France was also a champion.
Solfrid Koanda from Norway declined her last two attempts after a straightforward fourth 87kg title. The Paris 81kg champion failed once in snatch and finished a long way clear on 122-145-267. Yauheni Tsikhantsou, a 102kg bronze medallist in Paris, won at the same weight in a close tussle with the Spaniard Marcos Ruiz, whose Olympic hopes were ruined by a serious quad injury. Tsikhantsou, the Independent Neutral Athlete from Belarus, made all six lifts for a sweep of golds on 181-218-399. In the men’s 109kg, Garik Karapetyan led a 1-2 finish for Armenia. His older team-mate Simon Martirosyan – Olympic silver medallist in Rio and Tokyo – made only three good lifts to Karapetyan’s five.
Koanda was making her final appearance at 87kg, a category that will not exist after June 1. She missed her opener at 117kg then made the next three lifts before retiring. Koanda has been training in Germany with their national team, under the guidance of Almir Velagic. He lifted at the Olympic Games for Germany after leaving Bosnia and is a key figure with Sport Director Michael Vater in building a “new generation” German team. Vater said, “Having Solfrid training with us is good for her, and good for our team. The younger lifters look up to her, and she benefits from being in a group rather than training on her own. It makes for a good atmosphere.”
Koanda, who has also spoken positively about her new environment, has a bigger target this year than today: lifting at the World Championships in October in her own country. Madias Ngake from Great Britain was expected to be the closest chaser behind Koanda, but she failed three times on 112kg in snatch. Ngake still won a bronze medal in clean and jerk on 130kg.
Silver on total went to Lina Gyurjyan from Armenia on 106-140-246, and bronze to Anastasiia Manievska from Ukraine on 105-130-235. Silver and bronze in snatch were won by Tatev Hakobyan from Armenia and Anne Jensen from Denmark on 110kg and 109kg.
Tsikhantsou was 3kg short of his career-best total. He was pushed hard by Ruiz, who missed more than a year because of a quad tendon tear that left him with 25 internal stitches. Ruiz – Spain’s first medallist at the World Championships four months ago – made a career-best clean and jerk at this weight on his final attempt and finished 180-217-397. Tsikhantsou did not look troubled in making 218kg for victory.
Tudor Bratu made it three medallists in three days for host nation Moldova when he finished third on 176-210-386. Ramiro Mora Romero, originally from Cuba and now living in Britain, competed as a guest of the EWF and equalled his own British record in clean and jerk on 210kg. His national records are valid (he holds all of them at 89kg, 96kg and 102kg) but during the process of applying for British citizenship, Romero competed internationally last year for the Weightlifting Refugee Team.
Another former Cuban, who won many medals in Latin American competitions, became the heaviest medallist for Romania in a major championships since 1984 when he was third behind Karapetyan and Martirosyan at 109kg. Luis Rodriguez, 28, switched nationality last year after moving to Spain, meeting a Romanian woman and marrying her. He now lives and trains in Romania, and speaks the language. Rodriguez was third in snatch, fifth in clean and jerk and third on total on 180-210-390.
Karapetyan, 21, a triple junior world champion, made five good lifts after missing his opener and finished 185-226-411, a career best. Martirosyan started with two no-lifts and made 181-225-406. The clean and jerk silver and bronze medallist was Khas Magomed Balaev (AIN) from Russia on 215. He was fourth on total, 3kg behind Rodriguez.