Shacasia Johnson (-76kg) Wins Gold for Team USA at IWF Grand Prix

The -76kg weightlifter took gold with a 107kg snatch and earned a silver medal total

On the second day of the IWF Grand Prix in Peru, Team USA took home six medals: three silver medals from CJ Cummings and three from Shacasia Johnson, a -76kg athlete who put on a stellar performance and brought home the United States’ first gold medal from the event.

The 23-year-old Missouri native faced stiff competition from the other -76 kilo women:

  • Kristel Ngarlem (Canada)
  • Leidy Yessenia Solis Arboleda (Colombia)
  • Melisa Maida Aguilera Peña (Cuba)
  • Neisi Patricia Dajomes Barrera (Ecuador)
  • Aremi Fuentes Zavala (Mexico)
  • Estrella Belen Saldarriaga Dioses (Peru)
  • Shacasia Masha Johnson (USA)

But she managed to go six for six at her meet, beating out Colombia’s Leidy Solis for first place in the snatch with a mighty 107-kilogram lift, which she completed with just one second left on the clock. Watch it below:

https://youtu.be/_22RkrYO1IY

As a side note, if you can believe it, this isn’t even the heaviest snatch Johnson has made in the last month. On October 22, she made112-kilogram snatch in training, which is 4 kilos over Quiana Welch’s current American record in the lift:

Back to Lima.

When it was time for the clean & jerks, Johnson came in second with this powerful 134-kilogram lift, seen below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqUdbyXzqr4

But in this portion of the event, she was no match for Leidy Solis, who finished with a tremendous 145-kilogram clean & jerk, earning her gold in this lift and the total.

The final placings for the event were:

Snatch:

Gold: Shacasia Johnson, 107kg 
Silver: Leidy Solis, 106kg
Bronze: Aremi Fuentes, 105kg

Clean & Jerk

Gold: Leidy Solis, 145kg
Silver: Shacasia Johnson, 134kg
Bronze: Aremi Fuentes, 131kg

Total:

Gold: Leidy Solis, 251kg
Silver: Shacasia Johnson, 241kg
Bronze: Aremi Fuentes, 236kg

shacasia johnson podium

Colombia, in general, has had a terrific showing at the Grand Prix thus far, winning the -61kg Men’s, -67kg Men’s, -55kg Women’s, and now the -76kg women’s divisions.

We’re looking forward to seeing how the event wraps up on Sunday with the heaviest divisions, the -96kg Men (11am EST) and -87kg Women (1:30pm EST). You can stream it all here.