Dubai, February 18 2016 – Amany Ali won a fourth gold medal for the Egyptian women’s squad – and a sixth overall for the North African nation – on the penultimate day of the Seventh Fazza IPC Powerlifting World Cup – Dubai 2016 on Thursday.
Ali prevailed in the senior women’s U73kgs weight class with a last-ditch lift of 115kgs that took her clear of Thailand’s Arawan Bootpo (110kgs) and the Ukrainian youngster Alina Kumeyko (98kgs), who was duly awarded a gold medal in the combined U67kgs-U73kgs group ahead of the UAE’s own Maryam Al Zeyoudi – the recipient of the silver medal. Kumeyko’s lift of 98kgs set a new junior European (JEUR) and world (JWR) record.
Meanwhile, Iranian Majid Farzin set a new world record (NWR) in the men’s U80kgs category by bench-pressing 236.5kgs to take him well clear of the runner-up, Colombia’s Jainer Rafael Cantillo Guette (200kgs). Turkey’s Izzettin Kanat (193kgs) was third.
“This is the very first time that I’ve been able to break the world record and it’s the best day of my life. I’m so very happy,” said Farzin, who claimed the silver medal at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008 before winning gold in London four years later. “I’m really confident now that I can not only win the gold medal again in Rio de Janeiro, but hopefully break this U80kgs world record on three separate occasions with each and every one of my lifts (God willing). We will see what happens.”
The UAE’s Adel Shanbih (160kgs) and Khalil Ibrahim (97kgs) finished 16th and 21st respectively among the 26-strong, ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ field, with Oman’s Khalid Al Balushi lifting six kilograms less (154kgs) than Shanbih to end up 17th.
Elsewhere, Emirati sisters Mozah and Maryam Al Zeyoudi competed in the women’s U61kgs and U67kgs contests respectively. Maryam was the only junior participant to be competing among nine senior para-powerlifters and she achieved a creditable ninth-place finish with a third and final lift of 52kgs, finishing above Iraq’s Gharam Al Osmanee, who could only manage two ‘no lifts’ at 90kgs. Egyptian Amal Mahmoud (113kgs) won the event ahead of Kheda Berieva (112kgs), of Russia, and Kazakhstan’s Raushan Koishibayeva (105kgs). They were the only three lifters to break into three-digit territory.
Maryam’s sibling Mozah came fifth of five competitors in the lighter weight class. She (60kgs) and Bingul Hafize (96kgs), of Turkey, finished outside of a podium made up of the outright winner, Ukraine’s Tetiana Shyrokolava (104kgs), the Polish runner-up Mialgorzata Halas-Koralewska (100kgs) and the third-placed Moroccan Fatima Bahji (97kgs).
This event is being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council (DSC) and organized and supervised by the Dubai Club for the Disabled, with the support of their strategic partners the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center (HHC) and in cooperation with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the General Authority for Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW), the DSC and the UAE Paralympic Committee.
The final day of action at the Seventh Fazza IPC Powerlifting World Cup on Friday sees the heavyweights of para-powerlifting take the floor in the women’s 86kgs-plus weight class and the men’s U107kgs and 107kgs-plus classifications at the Dubai Club for the Disabled in Al Qusais.
