African Weightlifting Championships 2023 – Paris 2024 Qualifying Event result

Just after the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan and Asian Weightlifting Championships in Jinju, we continue to follow the Qualifying Stages for the Olympic Games in Paris. So, our next event among the continental contests is the African Weightlifting Championships, which was organized by the Weightlifting Federation of Africa. These competitions were held from 11 till 20 May in Tunis, Tunisia.

Athletes compete in a total of 20 weight categories: 10 for men and 10 for women:

• Men categories: 55 kg, 61 kg, 67 kg, 73 kg, 81 kg, 89 kg, 96 kg, 102 kg, 109 kg, and +109 kg.
• Women categories: 45 kg, 49 kg, 55 kg, 59 kg, 64 kg, 71 kg, 76 kg, 81 kg, 87 kg, and +87 kg

Men’s Results Recap

Let’s just think about a controversial situation that happened during this event connected to the Azerbaijani team. Because of the incident of Azerbaijan flag burning by the Armenian team at the Opening Ceremony, the Azerbaijani government ordered the team to refuse participation and return home. So, the Azerbaijani team lost a chance to increase its ranking. Consequently, the IWF decided the team to take part in the contest in Tunis instead of Yerevan.

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Its prominent weightlifter Isa Rustamov did his best and finished ahead of his eight rivals from Africa in the category Men’s 67 kg. He showed the result in 138 kg Snatch, 164 kg Clean&Jerk, and a total of 302 kg, which was better by 22 kg than the African athlete from Tunis Ayoub Salem.

However, the gold medal didn’t go to the Azerbaijani ‘guest’ lifters and the Tunisian athlete clinched the first place with the following results: 126 kg in Snatch, 154 kg in C&J, and 280 kg in total.

The silver was taken by an Algerian athlete Akhram Chekhchoukh with 279 kg, and the bronze went to Mouhamed Ben Hadj from Tunis with a total of 273 kg.

Women’s Results Recap

Impressive results were shown by the Nigerian lifter Rafiatu Lawal in the category Women’s 59 kg: she did a total of 217 kg that was enough to enter the top 10 list in the ranking for the 2024 Games in Paris. Additionally, she beat the continental records in Snatch and total with the results 95 kg in Snatch, 122 kg in C&J, and 217 kg in total.

In the category Women’s 71kg, Egyptian athlete Neama Said was the best one with her totals of 229kg, Snatch 102 kg, and C&J of 126 kg. In her twenties Said is the only Egyptian woman who succeeded to get world titles since her first international competition in 2018, by getting a silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games and winning continental youth and junior titles. Moreover, Neama is the only one from Egypt this year who got world titles as a youth, junior and senior.

General Overview

Weightlifters from Egypt, Tunisia and Nigeria made progress in the rankings for Paris 2024 with good performances in two Olympic weight categories at the African Championships here today.

The popular Tunisian lifter Karem Ben Hnia won his eighth continental title in the Men’s 73 kg class, but didn’t succeed to go straight into the top 10 of the Paris ranking. He failed to surpass the African record in Clean and Jerk by performing 146 kg in Snatch, 180 kg C&J, and 326 kg total. The reason was the injury to his left leg. Although, he plans to be in perfect condition for the next qualifying stage in Cuba (the next qualifier) by promising his fans to get the top 10 in the world.

To sum up, the Tunisian team of 20 athletes won the most rewards, with Egypt that had just 11 weightlifters who participated in heavier categories took all seven categories they competed.