Paris 2024 Weightlifting: All results, as Georgia’s Lasha Talakhadze wins back-to-back gold in men’s +102kg; Rubaiawi sets two new junior world records
Saturday night in Paris saw a celebratory atmosphere at the South Paris Arena for the men’s +102kg weightlifting final. And it was Georgia’s Lasha Talakhadze defending his gold medal at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The three-time Olympic champion took the win with a 215kg snatch and the heaviest clean & jerk of 255kg to finish with a 470kg total.
Armenia’s Varazdat Lalayan, competing in his first Olympic Games, earned a silver medal, snatching 215kg, followed by a 252kg clean & jerk to finish with a combined 467kg. And Bahrain’s Gor Minasyan, the Rio 2016 silver medallist (then competing for Armenia), won bronze with the biggest snatch of the night at 216kg and a 245kg clean & jerk for a combined 461kg. This marks a first-ever weightlifting medal for Bahrain.
Lalayan was proud of his silver medal, saying: “I am a gold medallist at the European Championships. I have two silver medals at the World Championships. So this medal is the most important for me."
Minasyan said: “It feels great when you have a medal around your neck. That means that everything you sweat for, everything you’ve done, it was for something. It feels great.”
Both men offered a nod to the gold medallist Talakhadze, with Lalayan saying he wasn’t sure if he can best him in the future, but adding: “He’s always ready and I’m always ready to compete with him.”
Minasyan said: “He’s a very good person. We’ve been competing with each other for 15 years and we are also friends.”
Also of note, was Iraq’s Ali Ammar Yusur Rubaiawi, the 20-year-old who set two new junior world records in the snatch, 200kg, and the combined, 437kg, taking a bow and kissing the weights to finish in sixth.
And, of course, there’s Egypt's Abdelrahman Abdelaziz Elsayed, whose seventh-place finish underlined a remarkable and rapid recovery from a broken back.
Gold medallist Lasha Talakhadze of Team Georgia (centre), silver medallist Varazdat Lalayan of Team Armenia (left) and bronze medallist Gor Minasyan of Team Bahrain pose on the podium after the weightlifting men's +102kg final
Weightlifting: Men's +102kg podium
Gold: Lasha Talakhadze, Georgia
Silver: Varazdat Lalayan, Armenia
Bronze: Gor Minasyan, Bahrain
See all the results on Olympics.com