Kocak Cenk of Turkey was the hot favourite in the 120kg class, being more than 50kg ahead in nominations. However, only 20kg covered the next four lifters, reigning world champion, Tony Cliffe among them.
We saw early drama when the top two nominated lifters, Cenk and Poland’s Piotr Sadowski, failed their opening squats. Cenk made his second squat at 320kg but then missed his third. Sadowski however, did not make a successful squat and the #2 nominated lifter dropped out of contention. Victor Mattsson of Sweden took an early lead and the squat gold with a well fought 335kg, GB’s Tony Cliffe only just behind on 330kg. ROC’s Konstantin Mustaev quietly put in 3 strong squats and took the bronze with 327.5kg.
Tony excelled in bench, taking the gold medal with 235kg. Cenk struggled again, only getting his opener. Dimitriy Li from Kazhakstan took the silver with 230kg which pulled him back into contention and slightly ahead of Cenk overall. Konstantin once again took bronze with 225kg putting real pressure on lead man Tony Cliffe at sub-total with only 7.5kg covering 3rd – 5th places.
Canada’s Bryce Krawczyk set out his intentions early with an easy looking opening pull of 365kg, only surpassed by Cenk opening with 370kg – a European record. Bryce looked comfortable taking 385.5kg for a new world record on his second but Cenk’s attempt to take that away with 390kg ground to a halt at his knees.
On the final round of deadlifts, Tony was the first of the contenders to pull. He asked for 362.5kg to go on the bar which would have put him ahead of Musaev but it stalled above the knee and would not go to lockout leaving him with the overall silver. Musaev came next and took the European deadlift and total record with comfortable 375kg deadlift. Cenk missed the 390kg that would have put him in silver overall putting him in overall third but under pressure from the Canadian. Krawczyk wanted a shot at the bronze medal and loaded up the world record deadlift which would have snagged it for him – 390.5kg. He took it to within an inch of lockout but couldn’t quite get it through.
Musaev was impressive throughout this session. He did not put a foot wrong, he lifted within his ability, pitched his attempts perfectly and executed every lift with precision. He did not take the gold in any of the three disciplines: he just quietly built a total and walked away with the world title. That’s real powerlifting.
Watch it back here https://youtu.be/fjek7Oz2YvY
9th October 2021
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