Records continue to fall at the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) Grand Prix II & Qatar International Cup. The second Prix event of the year (following the first in June) runs from Dec. 4 to 14, 2023, in Doha, Qatar. On Dec. 12, Chinese weightlifter and reigning 81-kilogram World Champion Liang Xiaomei set the latest records.
Capping off an intense session and going blow-for-blow with teammate (and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion) Wang Zhouyu, Xiaomei emerged victorious with a 161-kilogram (354.9-pound) clean & jerk for a new Senior world record. Paired with her gold-medal-winning 123-kilogram (271.1-pound) snatch, Xiaomei established a new world record in the Total of 284 kilograms, or 626.1 pounds.
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Xiaomei, who recently won the Women’s 81s at the 2023 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in September, is in top form. She went five-for-six on the day, making all of her competitive attempts and declining to take her third clean & jerk. Here’s the breakdown:
Liang Xiaomei (81KG) | 2023 IWF Grand Prix II
- Snatch: 115, 120, 123
- Clean & Jerk: 150, 161 | World Record
- Total: 284 | World Record
China’s Latest Star
The Chinese weightlifting team — particularly their female roster — is the most dominant contingent in professional Olympic lifting of the last decade, and it’s not close. Chinese women own more current weightlifting world records than any other nation, and they seem to have a nearly-infinite talent pool to pluck from.
Case in point: 26-year-old Xiaomei made her official debut on an IWF platform in 2016 as a Junior athlete, but then took a seven-year competitive hiatus. When she returned to the sport in 2022 at that year’s World Championships, she kicked off a streak of top-tier performances and has become untouchable in the Women’s 81-kilogram division:
- 2016 Junior World Weightlifting Championships: 3rd
- 2022 World Weightlifting Championships: 1st
- 2023 Asian Weightlifting Championships: 1st
- 2023 World Weightlifting Championships: 1st
- 19th Asian Games: 1st
- 2023 IWF Grand Prix II: 1st
Moreover, Xiaomei is the only woman to touch and exceed the IWF’s World Standard benchmarks — weights that athletes in a category must beat in order to establish new world records. The Standards have gone untouched since the 81-kilogram division was minted in 2018, until Xiaomei came along. She’s bagged the clean & jerk and Total records, but has yet to beat the 127-kilogram Standard set forth by the IWF. But based on her current trajectory, it’s only a matter of time.
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Featured Image: International Weightlifting Federation
