North Korea and China dominated the IWF World Weightlifting Championships 2024 in Manama, Bahrain, which concluded on Sunday; clinching the top-two places with 45 and 25 medals respectively.
Nine North Korean weightlifters were crowned world champions, including, five women, namely Song Kuk Hyang (76kg), Ri Suk (64kg), Kim Il Gyong (59kg), Kang Hyon Gyong (55kg), and Ri Song Gum (49kg); and four men, including Ri Chong Song (81kg), Ri Ryong Hyong (73kg), Ri Won Ju (67kg), and Pak Myong Jin (61kg).
Kazakhstan, meanwhile, clinched the third sport with three gold, three silver and one bronze medal, while Uzbekistan had three gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
These superlative efforts were matched off the platform by the hosts, who got everything right.
“It has been like a festival – nobody wanted it to end,” said Eshaq Ebrahim Eshaq, president of the Bahrain Weightlifting Federation and head of an organising committee that worked for 18 months on the biggest hosting project in Bahrain’s Olympic sport history.
“The competition venue, presentation, spectator engagement, training hall, hotels, transport, food, fanzone… everything worked really well. We have not had a single complaint about anything.”
The IWF President Mohammed Jalood stated at the closing ceremony, “Bahrain has raised the World Championships bar to a new level.”
The weightlifters representing India — Ditimoni Sonowal (finished 23rd in the women’s 64kg event), Gyaneshwari Yadav (fifth in the women’s 49kg weight), and Bindyarani Devi (ninth in the women’s 55kg event) — came close to clinching a podium finish.