Liu Huanhua Becomes the First-Ever to Set World Records in the Men’s 102 kg Category

We can safely say that Liu Huanhua is a trailblazer in the weightlifting world, and his most recent performance helped prove just that.

The athlete from China made weightlifting history on Monday during the IWF World Cup in Thailand as he became the first 102-kilogram athlete to set world records in his category. Liu Huanhua’s 232 kg Clean & Jerk and his 413 kg total are both inaugural world records.

Thanks to his incredible performance in Phuket, Huanhua not only qualified for the Paris Olympic Games this summer, but he’s also now on top of the 102 kg international leaderboard and the main favorite to win the coveted Olympic gold medal. 

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Why are These the First World Records? 

Some of you might be wondering why Huanhua is the first ever to set these records. This is because, in 2018, the IWF announced a redesign of the sport’s competitive weight classes.

Essentially, the board took that decision in the midst of many on-going doping scandals that showed the IWF’s inability to deal with steroid use in the past. That’s why, in order to sanitize the record books, the organization took the decision to adopt new categories.

Upon publishing the new weight classes, they came with new IWF “world standards” – figurative benchmarks made when a new division is created. For a world record to become official, an athlete has to lift one kilogram more than the established standards.

For the last six years, ever since the new weight classes became a reality, nearly every single one of them has had world records set by athletes. However, until Liu Huanhua, no man in the world managed to keep up with the bar set by the IWF. 

Despite the fact that Hunahua has not competed for long, he has quickly become one of the crowd favorites and one of Team China’s best-performing athletes. With a World Championship title under his belt, Huanhua’s next big goal is to win the Olympic gold medal later this year.

His main competition for that title is expected to be Meso Hassona from Qatar, who unfortunately had to miss this IWF World Cup due to an injury he sustained while preparing for the competition. 

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