Senior Lifter Eko Yuli Iriawan Down At The 2022 Weightlifting World Championships, First Qualification Towards The Paris Olympics

Indonesian senior lifter Eko Yuli Irawan. (Photo via Antara/Zabur Karuru)

JAKARTA - A total of 12 Indonesian athletes will participate in the 2022 Weightlifting World Championship. The event will take place in Bogota, Colombia, 5-16 December.

This is the first qualifying event for lifters who are collecting points for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The manager of the Indonesian weightlifting team, Pura Darmawan, said that the 12 lifters who will depart for Colombia will be athletes who have appeared in the World Championships and have just made their debut. One of them is senior lifter Eko Yuli Irawan.

He will undergo his tenth appearance at the World Championships. After being absent in last year's edition, the 33-year-old lifter will again compete in the men's 61kg class with his arch-enemy, Li Fabin from China, as reported by Antara, Friday, November 25.

Apart from Eko, the Executive Board of the Indonesian Weightlifting Association (PABSI) will also deploy other lifters, namely Ricko Saputra (61kg), Rizki Juniansyah (73kg), Rahmat Erwin Abdullah (73kg), and Muhammad Zul Ilmi (89kg).

Meanwhile, in the women's category there are Windy Cantika Aisah (49kg), Juliana Klarisa (55kg), Natasya Beteyob (59kg), Nelly (59kg), Tsabitha Alfiah Ramadani (71kg), Restu Anggi (71kg), and Nurul Akmal (+87kg).

Previously, at the 2021 Weightlifting World Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Indonesia brought home one gold through Rahmat Erwin Abdullah in the 73kg class. At that time, he recorded a total lift of 343kg, with a snatch of 143kg and a clean and jerk of 192kg.

The 2022 World Championships in Bogota is the opening qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics by competing in 10 men's classes and 10 women's classes.

But at the Paris Olympics later, weightlifting will only compete in five men's and women's classes each, less than the previous edition when Tokyo 2020 featured seven classes.

In the men's category, the five classes competed were classes 61kg, 73kg, 89kg, 102kg, and +102kg, while categories were women 49kg, 59kg, 71kg, 81kg, and +81kg.