The long-awaited gold: weightlifter Okulov brought the Russian Federation the first victory at the World Championships after removing the suspension with FTAR

For several years, Russian weightlifters could not fight for the World Cup awards. In 2016, before the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) did not allow athletes to participate in competitions due to numerous anti-doping rule violations, and then completely deprived FTAR of accreditation.

Over the next two years, the Russian Weightlifting Federation did a serious job on the road to regaining its rights: changed the president, made major changes to her approach to doping testing, and, as noted in the IWF, made significant progress overall. As a result, in 2018, domestic athletes again had the opportunity to represent their country at the championship of the planet.

Nevertheless, the beginning of the long-awaited tournament in Ashgabat was not the best for them. The Russians could not get on the podium for a long time, but on the sixth day of the tournament they still achieved success. Artyom Okulov won the competition in the weight category up to 89 kg. For him, this gold medal was the second in his career - he had previously become the best in 2015 and, along with Tatyana Kashirina, brought the last World Championship awards to the country.

Victory in the tournament was not easy for Okulov. The Russian was not very confident in his performance, having shown only the eighth result in the snatch (166 kg) and losing three kilograms to the Chilean Arly Mendez Perez. However, in the push he managed to gain 206 kg and eventually climb to the top line. Only the kilogram was given to him by the silver medalist Belarussian Pavel Hadasevich and the winner of the bronze Georgian Revaz Davetadze.

The success of the Russian weightlifter commented on the Russian national team coach Oleg Pisarevsky.

“Artyom is well done, we waited for him to be in the prize-winners, and a little cautiously hoped that he would be able to fight for the first place. And then there was a victory, the whole team is happy. This success drew the attention of all our opponents and said that men's weightlifting is alive in our country and we can win, ”Pisarevsky TASS quoted.

“I can’t promise that there will be more gold medals. But looking at the feat of Artem, the guys will compete for awards. We all embraced him and rejoiced with him, this is a long-awaited victory. We suffered it, were doomed, because our opponents turned away from us. They did not know that we would rise from our knees and reassert ourselves. Two years have been waiting for these competitions, this is a long time, and now Okulov gave a hint to all the guys who still remained in the tournament, ”the head coach of the Russian team added.

The joy of the first gold medal of Russia in weightlifting since 2015 was also shared by the member of the FTAR Executive Committee Alexander Venkov, who noted that Okulov "won a fair victory."

“All the athletes with whom he competed, in readiness, look about the same. About ten people applied for the medal, and Artem showed himself well and showed his best qualities. Honestly, he expected Okulov to conquer gold. For me, his result did not become a revelation, ”RIA Novosti quoted Venkova as saying.

According to him, on the eve of the tournament, many feared that the lack of competitive practice could adversely affect the performance of Okulov. But in the end, the athlete proved that it was not worth doubting, Venkov believes

“An athlete of this caliber, like Okulov, goes to the platform and does his job: wins the gold medal and becomes a world champion. Artyom added so many positive emotions. He turned the situation that was not in our favor, ”concluded Venkov.

In the other weight categories, the Russians were not able to get into the top ten. So, Sergey Petrov took the 11th place in the category up to 73 kg, and Felix Khalibekov became the 15th in the division up to 67 kg.

In women, the situation is somewhat better, but at the moment they have not been able to bring a single award to the piggy bank of the national team. The closest to this was Anastasia Romanova, who stopped a step away from the podium in the weight category up to 71 kg. In total, it showed 240 kg and only two kilograms lost to the third Nadezhda Likhacheva from Kazakhstan.

Among the rest of Russian weightlifters, only Tim Turieva was able to enter the top 10 in her category. In the weight category up to 64 kg, she took the ninth place, losing to the winner - Chinese woman Wei Deng - 29 kg.