Uzbek lifter Ruslan Nurudinov claimed his first Olympic medal in Rio after winning the Men’s 105kg class. Nurudinov had an impressive performance, finishing 5 of 6 lifts and winning Uzbekistan’s first Olympic medal in the sport. Now, days after his gold medal lifting, Nurudinov is posting some old training footage to Instagram — and for many fans of the sport, they border on jaw-dropping.
We’ve known for awhile that Nurudinov had made training lifts above the world records in his weight class, and he listed some of them when BarBend Contributor Mike Graber interviewed him during the 2016 Asian Weightlifting Championships. Now, we finally have video of his 205kg snatch — 5kg above the 105kg class world record — and 250kg rack jerk, along with a clean + clean & jerk complex at 225kg.
(Read the full profile on Ruslan Nurudinov here.)
First up: A 250kg split jerk off the rack, filmed during the summer of 2014. We’ve seen a few other supremely heavy rack jerks from 105k lifters Ilya Ilyin and Dmitry Klokov, and now we can add Nurudinov’s name to the list of 250kg-and-over jerkers.
Next, Nurudinov’s 205kg snatch, also from summer 2014. Yes, he’s wearing straps, but it’s a remarkable lift nonetheless. Ruslan was already seen as one of his weight class’ premiere snatchers, and this lift suggests he’s capable of even more than we’ve seen on stage.
Finally, here’s a 225kg clean + clean & jerk complex from July 2016, when Nurudinov was in full-on prep for the 2016 Rio Games. His clean & jerks in Rio were some of the best looking lifts from the entire competition — regardless of weight class — and Nurudinov opened at 225 in this portion.
Featured image: @rnurudinov on Instagram
