IPF World Equipped - Lightweight Women

 Originally published on IPF social media on 18th October 2023

As the masters disperse to the four corners of the world, it's time to turn our attention to the premier equipped competition in the calendar - the World Open Equipped Powerlifting Championships, to be held in Druskininkai, Lithuania.

The 47kg class will kick off the competition and this class is wide open this year.  Yukako Fukushima of Japan has been a dominant force in the 47s in recent year but she withdrew her nomination and will not take part in this year's event.  Here are the top three nominations:

Paulina Szymanel POL 480kg

Tetiana Bila UKR 445kg

Tzu-Yin Tseng TPE 432.5kg

We haven't seen Szymanel on the international stage since the 2022 Europeans that this nomination comes from.  She was in the 52kg class then, so it's difficult to get a sense of where she will be at this one.   Bila has been back down in the 47s for a while though and the three-time junior world champion has plenty of experience to draw on so this could end up being a close battle.

We also have the fast improving Tzu-Yin Tseng nominated in the top three.  She took the squat bronze last year and may well challenge for the gold this time out.

The 52kg class also lifts on Day 1 of the competition.  Here are the top three nominations:

Anastasiia Derevianko UKR 492.5kg

Laura Savolainen SWE 462.5kg

Olivia Kyosti FIN 462.5kg

Former junior world champion, Derevianko brought a bronze medal home from The World Games last year, her second attendance at the event.  She was the silver medallist at last year's equipped worlds behind Polish phenom Zuzanna Kula.  Kula is still recovering from knee surgery and will not be here to defend so the world title race is wide open.

Derevianko is a fair way ahead on nominations but Savolainen and Kyosti seem pretty closely matched, 30kg behind. Their nominations come from the 2023 European Equipped where they both finished just ahead of a struggling Derevianko in an exciting three way battle.  Savolainen took the European title on bodyweight at that event, her first equipped international win. We know Kyosti more as a classic lifter than equipped, having been junior world champion in 2021, but she is quickly making her mark on the equipped side too.

One thing is for sure, you won't want to miss a second - and you won't have to, with every session being streamed for free on YouTube and Facebook.

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