was taken away from him Sunday by another Iranian, Behdad Salimi.
Salimi, 22, has been Iran’s athlete in the super heavyweight category of weightlifting since Rezazadeh retired in 2007 and became the head of the Iranian weightlifting team. So the irony is that Rezazadeh is helping Salimi take away Rezazadeh’s records.
The first one fell Sunday at the 2011 World Weightlifting Championships held in Paris.
Salimi surpassed Reza-zadeh’s 2003 record in the snatch by a single kilogram, posting a new record of 214 kilograms. The lifter who came in second was yet another Iranian, Sajjad Anoushiravani, who snatched 198 kilos, showing just how far out ahead both Rezazadeh and Salimi are.
Weightlifting awards three gold medals in each weight category—one for the snatch, one for the clean & jerk and one for the total lifted. Rezazadeh still holds clear title to the world records in the clean & jerk and totals.
The table below shows Rezazadeh’s bests in the first column followed by the lifts at this year’s world championships by the gold medallist, Salimi, silver medallist, Anoushiravani, and bronze medallist, Sang-Guen Jeon of South Korea.
Category R G S B
Snatch 213 214 198 192
C&J 263 250 241 241
Total 472 464 439 433
(Note: Rezazadeh’s world record for total lift is less than his snatch and clean & jerk records because the record is the total lift at one event. Rezazadeh’s snatch and clean & jerk records were set at different events.)
Rezazadeh’s record total is still 8 kilos or 17 1/2 pounds ahead of Salimi and a whopping 39 kilos or 86 pounds ahead of the nearest non-Iranian.
His clean & jerk record is 13 kilos or 28-1/2 pounds ahead of Salimi and 22 kilos or 48-1/2 pounds ahead of the nearest non-Iranian.
Rezazadeh remains the unchallenged “world’s strongest man.”
Iran sent contenders to the worlds in four other weight divisions, with two of them winning medals. Sajjad Behruzi came in ninth in the 69-kilo division. Navab Nasirshelal came in sixth in the under 105-kilo division. Saeed Mohammadpur came in third in the 94-kilo division. And Kianush Rostami won gold in the 85-kilo division.
China dominated the world’s, ranking first in the four lightest weights, while Iran ranked first in two higher weights and Russia and Kazakhstan took top spot in the remaining two weights.
On overall score, China placed first with Russia second and Iran third.
Each entrant gets three tries at the snatch and three at the clean & jerk. Salimi started modestly in the snatch, trying and succeeding at 201 kilos for his first lift. For the second he tried and lifted 209 kilos. On the third lift, he went for the world record and succeeded with 214 kilos.
In the clean & jerk, Salimi lifted 241 kilos on the first try and 250 kilos on the second try. For his third, Salimi did not seek to beat Rezazadeh in the clean & jerk, trying, but failing, to lift 260 kilos. However, had he succeeded in that last lift, he would have beaten Rezazadeh’s total of 472 kilos by two kilos and replaced him as the world’s strongest man.
The snatch and the clean & jerk are two methods for lifting a weight over one’s head. The snatch is a single motion taking the weight from the floor to above the head. The clean & jerk is a two-stage operation in which the weight is first lifted from the floor to shoulder-height and then, in a second effort, moved above the head on extended arms.
Salimi snatched 214 kilos earlier this year at an Iranian event but that was not recognized internationally.