Iranian weightlifter and Olympic Champion Sohrab Moradi has just unofficially broken the world records in the snatch, clean & jerk, and total in Iran.
The first video he posted to his Instagram showed the clean & jerk, a lift in which the -94kg athlete currently holds the world record with 233 kilograms (513.7lb). He broke it not by your standard kilogram, but by seven damn kilograms (15.4 pounds). Here’s that incredible lift of 240 kilograms (529.1 pounds).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkfcnkhBwOh/
After picking our jaws off the floor and getting ready to write this article, Moradi quietly uploaded a second video of the snatch: 190 kilograms (418.9lb). This lift is two kilograms heavier than the world record in the lift from Akakios Kakiasvilis, a Greek/Georgian athlete and three-time Olympic Champion who set the record all the way back at the 1999 World Weightlifting Championships in Greece.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkfdMN-BplZ
This would give him a total of 430 kilograms (948 pounds), breaking the current world record total (his own) by a phenomenal 13 kilograms. For comparison’s sake, here’s some footage of the time he officially broke the clean & jerk and total records, at last year’s World Weightlifting Championships in Anaheim.
While today’s lifts didn’t happen in an international competition they are certainly important lifts for the man, especially the snatch. We’ve been eagerly watching Moradi’s training and this isn’t actually the first time he has made a 240kg clean & jerk, having pulled off the lift once before in October.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BagYZzahQOU/
And earlier this year he managed to clean more than this, pulling off a clean and almost jerk of 242 kilos (533.5lb).
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bduvn2JgHLM
Of course, you can break records and not manage to do so in competition — again, he clean & jerked 240kg before falling short of that lift in Anaheim — but this is a very encouraging performance for Iran as weightlifters prepare for the Asian Games, to be held in Jakarta on August 18.
Featured image via @sohrab.moradiii on Instagram.
