2024 Olympic Games, Day 4 Recap – Women’s 81 kg: Koanda Solfrid Triumphs With Two Olympic Records for Norway
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The Olympic Games are moving to its culmination, so it’s time to spectate the performances of heavy- and super heavyweight divisions. The stakes are increasing, each lift of the barbell seems heavier with each session.
Day 4 proved the great power of female weightlifters from the 81-kg weight class who didn’t give up till the very end.
It’s supposed to be an intriguing performance. Keep watching this overview and you’ll know who dominated in this competition and who failed to meet the expectations.
Read the full review about each day of the IWF Weightlifting World Championship 2024 prepared by our media team. Don’t miss the opportunity to stay updated and follow this great event in the weightlifting world with us from the very beginning till the end!
Let’s observe the highlights of this battle and finalize the winning lifts in each exercise. Keep following our review to know the details of this Olympic tournament.
Athletes’ presentation
Today thirteen female weightlifters from the heavyweight division were performing at the South Paris Arena 6 trying to get a medal at the Olympics. So, we can highlight four of the division’s most talented contenders who stand out from the rest of the opponents.
Solfrid Koanda from Norway is a three-time gold medalist at the European Championships, a gold and bronze medalist at the Worlds. She’s a first-time Olympian who’s dreaming of winning an Olympic gold. Her role model is unbeatable Lasha Talakhadze who has already won multiple times and he doesn’t even need to improve to continue winning.
Cikamatana Eileen
This Australian weightlifter is a two-time overall World Championships medalist. She won gold medals at the 2018 representing Fiji in the 90-kg division and 2022 Commonwealth Games representing Australia in the 87-kg category. Thus, she became the first woman to win golds for two different countries at the Commonwealth Games.
In 2018 she became the first woman to win Commonwealth Games gold for Fiji. Also, in 2023 she won three gold medals at the Pacific Games.
DAJOMES BARRERA Neisi from Ecuador is set to defend her gold medal at the Paris Olympics. With gold in the 76-kg category she won at Tokyo 2020, she became the first Ecuadorian female lifter to win a medal at the Olympic Games. At the 2020 Olympics she set three Olympic records.
She’s also an eight-time World Championships medalist; won three golds at the Junior Worlds. Additionally, she got seven consecutive Pan American titles since 2017.
AHMED Sara Samir
This Egyptian weightlifter became the first weightlifter from Egypt who won gold at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, competing in the 63-kg weight category. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she got bronze medal in the 69-kg division.
She took triple gold in the 76 kg weight class at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. She also won four of the last five African Championships in 76-kg and 81-kg categories.
Snatch
The performance in the Snatch exercise started from 85 kg. The competition promised to be intensive and fierce as nobody from the top lifters wouldn’t give up their spot.
Here are the names of weightlifters who managed to get to the Top 6:
4: Cikamatana Eileen (AUS) – 117 kg
5: Mejia Peguero Y. (DOM) – 111 kg
6: Kim Suhyeon (KOR) – 110 kg
Top 3 leaders’ results
Now let’s analyze the Top 3 lifters’ performance:
1: Dajomes Barrera N. (ECU) – 122 kg
2: Koanda Solfrid (NOR) – 121 kg
3: Ahmed Sara (EGY) – 117 kg
Sara Ahmed from Egypt ended this session with the following lifts: 113 kg on the first lift, the second – 117 kg that resulted successfully, but she failed the last lift of 119 kg.
The second place went to Koanda Solfrid from Norway. She made the first attempt at 117 kg which was successful. She made a 121 kg lift on the second attempt that resulted in a green light. She finalized her performance with a 124 kg attempt, but didn’t secure the bar.
The first place went to Neisi Barrera Dajomes from Ecuador. Her first attempt of 118 kg was poor, then she repeated this weight at the second, and ordered 122 kg, which brought her a win.
Snatch results:
Summarizing the Snatch session, we can state that the category’s leaders began their attempts with the opener starting from 113 kg. Thus, the battle between several promising lifters Cikamatana and Ahmed was accompanied with equal weights.
While another competitive pair Solfrid – Dajomes went head-to-head with a minimal weight gap. Having taken a risk, Solfrid jumped by 3 kilos at the last attempt, but failed to cope with 124 kg. So, Dajomes outperformed her by one kilo.
Weronika Zielińska from Poland bombed out today, failing to lift 106 and 107 kg.
Clean & Jerk
The contest in the Clean & Jerk started with a weight of 103 kg. This breathtaking race brought us the following Top 6 lifters who are already enlisted in the Olympic history:
4: Mejia Peguero Y. (DOM) – 145 kg
5: Dajomes Barrera N. (ECU) – 145 kg
6: Kim Suhyeon (KOR) – 140 kg
Top 3 leaders’ results
Let’s describe the performance of the Top 3 lifters:
1: Koanda Solfrid (NOR) – 154 kg
2: Ahmed Sara (EGY) – 151 kg
3: Cikamatana Eileen (AUS) – 145 kg
Eileen Cikamatana from Australia secured third place: she lifted 145 kg on the first attempt. At the second attempt she didn’t cope with 149 kg. And at the final lift, she intended to repeat the same 149 kg, but failed the last attempt.
The silver medalist in this battle became Sara Ahmed from Egypt. Today she started her performance with 146 kg, then she lifted 151 kg with success, and finalized with an attempt of 155 kg which she didn’t perform successfully.
Koanda Solfrid from Norway became the winner in the 81-kg weight division. She started from 148 kg, then lifted 6 kilos more – 154 kg. However, her last attempt of 162 kg resulted in no lift. Nevertheless, she managed to set a new Olympic record in C&J.
Clean & Jerk results:
This round brought us the following outcomes: two athletes from Poland and Cuba withdrew and refused from competing respectively. While all contenders failed their third attempts. That means the competition was really pressedout and weightlifters couldn’t cope with emotions to complete their last lift.
Meanwhile we have good news: a new Olympic record from powerful Koanda Solfrid who achieved her goal by shattering an Olympic record of 154 kg.
Total results
🥇 Koanda Solfrid (NOR) – 275 kg
🥈Sara Ahmed (EGY) – 268 kg
🥉 Dajomes Barrera N. (ECU) – 267 kg
4 Cikamatana Eileen (AUS) – 262 kg
5 Mejia Peguero Y. (DOM) – 256 kg
6 Kim Suhyeon (KOR) – 250 kg
The gold winner in the category was Koanda Solfrid from Norway who did 275 kg overall, setting a new Olympic record in total.
The silver medalist became Sara Ahmed from Egypt who finished with 268 kg, 7 kilos less than her Norwegian contender.
Neisi Barrera Dajomes from Ecuador took bronze thanks to her total of 267 kg.
Final thoughts
Today’s performance in the Women’s 81 kg category demonstrated to us the almighty power of the Norwegian lifter Koanda Solfrid who managed to outperform her contenders from Ecuador Dajomes Barrera and Sara Ahmed from Egyp.
It was indeed a tough performance where nobody wanted to lose a single opportunity to achieve the Olympic medal and reach the victorious podium.
New records were set in Clean & Jerk and total by the outstanding weightlifter from Norway. Solfrid deserved this win and the audience’s appraisal. As many efforts were made to reach such a result.
Know new winners of this grand event. Subscribe to our channels on Instagram and YouTube and follow all the updates for tomorrow’s competition day.
Read the full report about each day of the Weightlifting at 2024 Olympics 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!
Detailed results of each day:
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 1 Recap – Women’s 49 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 1 Recap – Men’s 61 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 2 Recap – Women’s 59 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 2 Recap – Men’s 73 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 3 Recap – Women’s 71 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 3 Recap – Men’s 89 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 4 Recap – Men’s 102 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 4 Recap – Women’s 81 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 4 Recap – Men’s +102 kg
- 2024 Olympic Games, Day 5 Recap – Women’s +81 kg
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Author: Tanya Shaiko
News Editor, Olympic Lifting Enthusiast
Best Results: Snatch – 61 kg,
C&J – 78 kg
I’m Tanya, and I just can’t do without fitness. About six years ago, I got into Olympic weightlifting and instantly fell in love with it. Weightlifting is like no other sport – it’s just you versus the bar. Driven by my unwavering passion for an active lifestyle, I’ve been eager to share my personal journey and sports enthusiasm with others. As a journalist and photographer, my interests come full circle, adding an extra dimension to the news column that I curate. This way, I keep my readers updated with the latest happenings in the sports world.