Iranian junior female weightlifters made their international debut and also set the first international records at the Asian Juniors Weightlifting Championships in Urgench, Uzbekistan, on April 20-30.
Parmida Mahmoudian of 68 kg weight class became the first Iranian woman to lift a weight in an international event. Regardless of the final result, it is considered a historical move in the history of the sport for Iranian women who have attended this stage for the first time on April 26, IRNA reported.
Mahmoudian’s results put her in sixth place of the games. On the second day of the tournament, the second Iranian lady Elnaz Bajlani in 63 kg class, tested her mettle on the board and finished fifth in her first international presence in the total division with a record of 143 kg.
The third lady was Mahieh Kalali in the 69 kg category. She set the record of 102 kg in the total division to rank fifth in the Asian tournament.
Seyyedeh Narges Mirzaki will be the last from Iran’s women delegation to lift the weight.
The Quartet made the first Iranian weightlifting women’s team to appear on the international stage.
Last March, Iran’s Weightlifting Federation decided to form the first Iranian national team for the sport. So women weightlifters’ training sessions were launched and it took less than a year for the federation to officially begin preparations with the Ministry of Sports and Youth’s permission.
Female weightlifters from across the provinces took part in the competition and those selected took part in training camps to get ready for the international tournament.
Iranian weightlifting veteran Mohammad Zehtab considers the team’s formation a huge step forward that demands a lot of courage.
“It needed too much courage to initiate the sport for women and the question is that why no one has done it before,” said Zehtab, the former head of Iran’s national weightlifting teams.
Referring to Mohammad Nassiri, who won nine international and Olympic gold medals, he said, “The first time I took him (Nassiri) to the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, he finished 13th and next year he finished fifth at the World Cup in Tehran. If there was no support at the time, maybe he could have never achieved those honors.”
Zehtab asked the federation and sports community to do the same for the girls who made their debut without taking part in any domestic championships and carried it out without stress.
“The team needs an international coach to set up body-building sessions for the team in the short time left to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” he said.
