We’re finally at the culminating point of the Qualifying event of the WWC in Riyadh, and the last weight division competing today – the super heavyweight Men’s 109+ kg. Eight heavyweight athletes from Armenia, Georgia, Bahrain, and Iran and other countries are expected to perform this evening. Everyone is waiting for extreme weight lifts and defining three best weightlifters of the category.

Indeed, Georgian, Armenian, and Bahraini lifters hit the podium with mind-blowing numbers of their totals.

Category		Gold		Silver		Bronze
Men 109+kg	Snatch	🇬🇪Lasha Talakhadze	220 kg	🇧🇭Minasyan Gor	215 kg	🇦🇲Lalayan Varazdat	212 kg
	C&J	🇬🇪Lasha Talakhadze	253 kg	🇦🇲Martirosyan Simon	250 kg	🇮🇷Daviudi Ali	249 kg
	Total	🇬🇪Lasha Talakhadze	473 kg	🇦🇲Lalayan Varazdat	460 kg	🇧🇭Minasyan Gor	459 kg

The gold winner in the Men’s 109+ kg was Lasha Talakhadze from Georgia: he lifted fantastic 473 kg in total, with a Snatch of 220 kg, and Clean&Jerk of 253 kg. Lasha succeeded to win his 7th world title of the strongest weightlifter.

Lasha Talakhadze (Georgia) made the winning Snatch of 220 kg.

Let’s remember his prior wins in short: he’s the current world record holder in Snatch of 225 kg, C&J of 267 kg, and total of 492 kg. Since 2015 he took gold at every World and Asian Championships, starting from the weight class of 105 kg and then moving to 109+ kg. So, Lasha proved his super heavyweight title in Riyadh as well.

Lasha Talakhadze Performing Gold C&J of 253 kg

Silver moved to an athlete from Armenia Varazdat Lalayan who did the total by 460 kg with a gap of 13 kilos compared to the leader. He lifted 212 kg in the Snatch exercise and 248 kg in Clean&Jerk. He’s a three-time medalist at the European Weightlifting Championships by clinching silver at the European Championships in Yerevan. He was defeated by Talakhadze in this thrilling contest.

Armenian Gor Minasyan from Bahrain took bronze by lifting 212 kg in Snatch, 247 kg in Clean&Jerk, and the total result of 459 kg. He’s also the winner of numerous awards: he took gold at the Asian Championships in Jinju with the results of 217-247-464, silver at the World Championships in Bogota with a total of 462 kg.

The winners and medalists of the Men’s 109+ kg at the podium.

While the leaders were celebrating their victory, other athletes, namely Armenian Simon Martirosyan and Iranian Ali Davoudi didn’t succeed to up the podium and got just single medals in separate exercises. Others didn’t manage to lift more and brought no award to their teams.

Read the full report about each day of IWF World Championships 2023 in Riyadh prepared by our media team. Don’t miss the opportunity to stay updated and follow this great event in the Olympic weightlifting world with us from the very beginning till the end!