After a multi-year absence from the world stage, Russia’s Tatiana Kashirina returned to form in impressive fashion, winning all three disciplines at the 2018 Weightlifting World Championships and walking away with her fifth overall title at the competition. The 2018 WWC was held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and concluded on November 10th.
The 27 year-old also was also World Champion in 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2015. She was a silver medalist at the 2009 and 2011 World Championships and a silver medalist the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Due to Russian weightlifting’s international competition ban, Kashirina and other top Russian lifters did not compete in last year’s World Championships. All Russian weightlifters and weightlifting officials were also barred from competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics due to the federation’s repeated doping rule violations.
Competing at a relatively light bodyweight of 107.60kg in the Women’s +87kg weight category, Kashirina finished with a 145kg snatch, 185kg clean & jerk, and 330kg total, all of which are new world records in the still-fresh bodyweight categories approved earlier this year.
The IWF’s official writeup summed up Kashirina’s return performance:
She did a new World Record with almost every lift, piling up seven altogether.
Though Kashirina put on a record-breaking performance, China’s Meng Suping was hot on her heels for much of the competition, finishing only two kilos back in the snatch and one kilo back in the jerk. (Suping also narrowly missed a 188kg clean & jerk that would have given her two gold medals.) In fact, Suping set her own world record in the clean & jerk before being overtaken by the Russian. Thailand’s Duangaksorn Chaidee finished third overall. PRK’s Kim Kuk-hyang finished third in the snatch for a bronze medal in that discipline.
American Sarah Robles — last year’s World Champion in Anaheim — finished with a 290kg total for fifth overall, which included a new American Record total and Pan American records in the clean & jerk and total.
Featured image: @iwfnet on Instagram
