Fares clinches gold at Asian Weightlifting Championships

Fares clinches gold at Asian Weightlifting Championships

By Sports Reporter/ Doha

Qatar’s Fares Ibrahim was far from his best but still showed enough class to clinch gold at the 2022 Asian Weightlifting Championships in Manama, Bahrain, on Saturday.

The Tokyo Olympic 96kg champion, moving up to the Paris 2024 weight category of 102kg, lifted 171 in snatch and 215 in clean and jerk for a total of 386. The 24-year-old was back on the stage for the first time since December last year. Fares failed with two of his snatches and declined to take his final two clean and jerks, but two lifts were enough for him to finish well clear of the rest of the field. Iran’s Dehdar Reza with a total lift of 372kgs (snatch: 170 and clean and jerk 202) took silver, while the bronze medal went to Uzbekistan’s Sharofiddin Amriddinov after the junior world champion finished with 368kgs (snatch: 172kg and clean and jerk 196).

With the first qualifying event for Paris 2024 – the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Colombia – in December, many of Asia’s top athletes decided against competing in Bahrain, which is hosting a major weightlifting competition for the first time.

Meanwhile, 96kg World Champion and World Record holder