León, Day 6: The man with the golden smile strikes again for Kazakhstan, and Nicholson claims USA’s fourth win

Yedige Yemberdi is a name to remember. If his numbers are remarkable – four wins in four international competitions and 11 good clean and jerks in a row – his stage presence is even more impressive.

For the second straight year 19-year-old Yemberdi, from Kazakhstan, overcame a big deficit in snatch to claim the junior world title. He has also won world and continental youth gold since his first appearance in 2022.

Yedige Yemberdi (KAZ)

Last November in Guadalajara, Mexico, Yemberdi thumped his chest after every lift and led the applause himself as he moved from ninth place at halfway to the top of the podium at 81kg. The crowd loved it.

Today at the 2024 World Juniors in León, Spain, Yemberdi did it again at 89kg. He was fifth in snatch, 9kg behind the leader Diyorbek Ermatov from Uzbekistan. He smiled every time he came on the platform, encouraged the audience to make some noise, and finished with six good lifts.

“It comes from my mother,” he explained. “She taught me that you can beat the stress with a smile, and that’s what I do. If you win you have to do it with a smile, and you should do it if you lose too.

“After the snatch I was not sure I would win, but I made myself believe it. My coach came here at his own expense and I would have been ashamed if I didn’t win for him. I persuaded myself that I would do it, and I did – with a smile.”  

Jokser Albornoz (COL)

After his first clean and jerk, Yemberdi was 8kg behind Ermatov, who then failed with his last two attempts and finished fourth on total. After the next one the deficit was 3kg behind new leader Jokser Albornoz from Colombia, who had finished on 158-192-350.

Alireza Abbaspoor from Iran was next out. He made his final attempt for 156-195-351 to take the lead, and Yemberdi needed 199kg to win.

He came out smiling, roused the audience again, made the lift comfortably and posed for the cameras before he left the platform. Yemberdi finished on 153-199-352.

“What a presence! He’s amazing – we need more athletes like this in weightlifting,” said the IWF Athletes Commission chair Forrester Osei, who has succeeded in rousing  the audience as an enthusiastic speaker at several sessions here.

Alireza Abbaspoor (IRI)

The only clean and jerk Yemberdi has missed in his international career was the first one, at the 2022 World Youth Championships in the other León, in Mexico. He has had only three no-lifts in 24 attempts.

Yemberdi weighed in light at 86kg and looks forward to dropping to 81kg for his first senior outing at the World Championships in Bahrain in December. “It will be easy to lose five kilos,” he said. “I’ve had to eat two lunches and two dinners to bulk up for this weight class and I look forward to not doing it any more.”

The United States had its fourth winner of the Championships in the women’s 76kg evening session when Ella Nicholson added the junior world title to last year’s youth gold with an impressive 244kg total.

Ella Nicholson (USA)

Heesoo Jeon from Korea claimed the youth world record in total in second place, Anna Amroyan from Armenia was third, and Great Britain was on the podium when Isabella Brown took snatch bronze.

“That was my best total (by 2kg), best competition, best preparation and first senior American record,” said Nicholson, who won by a wide margin on 113-131-244. “Now I’m looking forward to the senior Worlds.”

Heesoo Jeon (KOR)

Nicholson, 18, made a great save in her first attempt and went on to beat Mattie Rogers’ national snatch record.  

Heesoo, 17, would have had three youth world records rather than one if she had made her final attempt on 134kg. She finished 102-130-232, ahead of Amroyan on 100-128-228.

Anna Amroyan (ARM)

Brown was 1kg short of Sarah Davies’ British snatch record as she improved her best numbers by 4kg in snatch and 1kg in clean and jerk, finishing fifth on 101-121-122.

By Brian Oliver