Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (Nov. 8, 2018) – Team USA’s Jenny Arthur took the platform at the 2018 IWF World Championships on Thursday. Arthur, a 2016 Olympian moved up a bodyweight category, from 76kg to 81kg at the verification of final entries. She went five for six but narrowly missed the podium, landing in fourth in the snatch, clean and jerk and total.
Arthur hit all three of her snatch attempts at 102, 104 and 106kg. Earlier this year, she won a bronze medal at the Pan American Championships with a 108kg snatch in the old 75kg body weight category. In the clean and jerk portion of the competition, Arthur hit 130kg, and 135kg, before attempting the last and heaviest lift of the session, that would’ve earned her a gold medal. She missed the jerk on her last attempt of 138kg.
Arthur set Senior American Records in the clean and jerk and total at the American Open Series 3 in Las Vegas. Competing in the 76kg bodyweight category, she clean and jerked 139kg and totaled 245kg. 106kg was her best snatch at that competition.
Spain’s Lidia Valentin took gold in the snatch with a 113kg lift. The silver medalist in the snatch lifted 108kg in the 81kg B session. Darya Naumava of Belarus took clean and jerk gold with a 137kg lift. Valentin became a 2nd time World Champion with her total of 249kg.
The 102kg A session ended the day of competition in Ashgabat. Junior lifter Akbar Djuraev of Uzbekistan captured the gold medal in the snatch as well as the Junior World Record for his 180kg lift. He also set the Junior world record total at 392kg. Iran’s Reza Beiralvand took gold in the clean and jerk with a 218kg lift, and teammate Ali Hashemi won the total gold with 396kg. He snatched 179kg for a silver medal, and clean and jerked 217kg for bronze.
Team USA’s Wes Kitts competes Friday, the second to last day of competition. He’ll take the platform in the 109kg B group at 2:25pm local, or 1:25am PST. Watch Team USA live at USAW.live.
