Karlos Nasar Making History: Sets New World Record and Secures Gold at IWF Grand Prix II

We just witnessed history being made at Doha, Qatar. 2023’s IWF Grand Prix II was home for the Bulgarian weightlifter to set a new world record for Clean and Jerk in the 89 kg category.

On the seventh day of competition, the 89 kg men’s category presented themselves with tons of athletes ready to fight for a spot at Paris 2024. Nasar was definitely one of the athletes to watch in this group, having quickly gained recognition for his demonstration of strength at his 19 years of age.

On the first attempt, Nasar came into the fight with a successful snatch of 165 kg, this left him in the middle of the pack for this round, as the second wave of attempts came back with a 5 kg jump to 170 kg snatch, setting him tied for third place, having only Colombia’s Yeison Lopez Lopez and Venezuela’s Keydomar Vallenilla above him with 175 kg and 171 kg respectively.

On the third round of attempts, Karlos Nasar stepped into the platform facing a 175 kg Snatch, he lifted it, pulled under the bar, but unfortunately missed the lift backwards, and as the bar fell back, Nasar’s chances for grabbing a silver medal for Snatch fell as well. Only scoring 170 kg on the Snatch placed Nasar in sixth place on this lift.

The story went quite differently for the Clean and Jerk, Karlos having set a world record in the past for this lift, expectations were high. Karlos started with 205 kg on his first attempt, then lifted 211 kg for his second, then he dropped everyone’s jaws when he set the bar with 223 kg, a 12 kg jump, this meant he was going to attempt to break the world record once again.

He got to the bar looking confident and triumphantly lifted a new world record, sending the message that he’s here to stay and be the top dog at his category, this gave him the first place on Clean and Jerk and a total of 393 kg, 3 kg above Yeison Lopez Lopez and giving him the gold medal for total and secured his spot on Paris 2024.

Karlos Nasar, born in Bulgaria in 2004, has been setting world records all over, earning gold medals at the World Championships in Colombia and Uzbekistan to earning gold and silver at the European Championships in Russia, Albania and Armenia. Now we’re ready to see what his career brings in his future.

To read more about the 89 kg category results and details on all lifters go to our Day 7 89 kg men’s Recap, and see a full day to day recap of the IWF Grand Prix II with details of all categories.