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Shop the IronMind e-store: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter: It was the final World Weightlifting Championships of the 20th century and the lifting was every bit as impressive as befits a milestone competition, replete with a bunch of world records. In the supers, three top heavies, in a large field of name brand lifters, were full of surprises. Weller bombed out, but Qatar’s Salem Saeed Jaber (Yanni Marchokov), bw (262 lb.), snatched 190, 200 and 205 kg for first place on bodyweight. Hossein Rezazadeh (Iran), just starting his march to dominance over the next seven years, snatched a world record 206 kg, but since this was before the days of the 1-kg rule, only 205 kg counted toward his total and he was second on bodyweight. Andrei Chemerkin (Russia) was fifth with 200 kg. In the clean and jerks, Jaber started with 240, Rezazadeh with 242.5, and Chemerkin with 245. After missing the jerk with 250, Jaber came back and nailed it, putting him in first overall at 455 kg. Rezazadeh cleaned 252.5 twice, but missed the jerk twice for a 447.5 total and third place. The really big man at kg (400.6 lb.), Chemerkin, wasn’t finished yet. With two attempts left, he called for 257.5 for the overall win—and pulled it high enough but didn’t move fast enough to get under the bar, missing the clean miserably and falling backward awkwardly. However, he came back and made a sure, deliberate clean, blowing up the jerk as if it were a toy, and taking first at 457.5 kg, proving he was the top super in the world. Watch these three giants stalk their prey here and revel in some incredible lifting.
