Armenian weightlifting team has won 2 bronze medals and a silver one in 2018 IWF Junior World Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The three medals are spread evenly among the three athletes who represented Armenia in Tashkent tournament: Varazdat Lalayan (105kg) is the silver medalist, Rafik Harutyunyan (77kg) and Samvel Babakyan (94kg) won the bronze.
Head coach of the junior team Melik Ghukasyan has told Mediamax Sport he is happy with the performance.
“They all worked well and have medals to show for it. Rafik was able to do better, I think, it just didn’t work out for him this time. Samvel did everything in his power to get the bronze medal and Varazdat was just fantastic. All three did the best they could,” said Ghukasyan.
These young athletes were the first to resume competing after the International Weightlifting Federation lifted the ban from Armenia. According to Ghukasyan, the comeback was rather difficult, but it helped that they trained and stood ready throughout the disqualification period.
“Overall we have earned 7 medals, both prize places and exercise medals, which is a really good result. My boys were competing in the World Championship for the first time and I think it was at almost the same level as senior athletes’ European Championship. Let’s hope these boys will perform well at that level too,” said Ghykasyan.
The Armenia team will start preparing for the Junior European Championship once they are back from Uzbekistan. The tournament will take place in Poland in October and Armenia will take the full team there, which gives the coach a hope for more medals.
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