On July 6, the next Congress of International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) was held in Tashkent, UZB. At the event, Tofig Heydarov-the first vice-president of Azerbaijan Weightlifting Federation, Rizvan Rasulov-general secretary, Fakhri Aghayev-the member of the Presidium, participated.
One of the main issues discussed at a meeting attended by delegates from 63 countries was to change the existing bodyweight categories and increase the number of them. New categories approved by the IWF Executive Board were officially ratified by the Congress.
International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Member Federations have unanimously accepted the 10 newly-approved men’s and women’s bodyweight categories.
These bodyweight categories for junior and senior men are: 55 kg, 61kg, 67kg, 73kg, 81kg, 89kg, 96kg, 102kg, 109kg and over-109kg.
For junior and senior women they are 45kg, 49kg, 55kg, 59kg, 64kg, 71kg, 76kg, 81kg, 87kg and over-87kg.
Seven of the men’s categories and seven of the women’s were also approved for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and have been accepted.
The men are 61kg, 67kg, 73kg, 81kg, 96kg, 109kg and over-109kg.
The women are 49kg, 55kg, 59kg, 64kg, 76kg, 87kg and over-87kg.
The youth bodyweight categories for men are 49kg, 55kg, 61kg, 67kg, 73kg, 81kg, 89kg, 96kg, 102kg and over-102kg, while those for women are 40kg, 45kg, 49kg, 55kg, 59kg, 64kg, 71kg, 76kg, 81kg and over-81kg.
In addition, the Congress also confirmed the updates to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games licensing system. The pre-existing rule before the classification stage was canceled. According to the new decision, athletes will have to get licenses for the Olympic Games not in teams but individually. Classification competitions will last at 3 (three) stages from November 1, 2018 until April 30, 2020. During the classification period, athletes wishing to win a license should compete at least in the 2 (two) tournaments and score points at the approved bodyweight categories for the Olympic Games. The first classification competition will be the world championship among men and women in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on November 1-10, 2018.
