Iran Men's Weightlifting National Team @Rio

[EKBATAN]

since we have threads for our more popular sports, lets do one for weightlifting

can someone post time and date for our contenders? stream links and highlights are appreciated too

[Payam_Ali]

85kg - Kianoush Rostami
Friday 3pm Pacific Time, Group A
- Kianoush is the 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist, 2011 and 2014 World Championships Gold Medalist, and 2015 World Championships Silver Medalist. He is the current world record holder in the Clean and Jerk and Total. It will realistically be a shootout between him and Tian Tao of China for Gold. Pielieshenko (UKR) and Asayonak (BLR) have good chances for bronze. Tao's numbers on paper are as good or better than Rostami but both are inconsistent in competition. Tao bombed out at the 2015 World Championships. He does a squat jerk which is inconsistent.

94kg - Sohrab Moradi and Ali Hashemi
Saturday, 3pm Pacific Time, Group A
- Moradi is favored to win Gold and possibly break multiple world records. He has video of 200kg snatch and 240kg C/J in training. He has had a history of underperforming in competition, but at the Fajr Cup he hit 180/220 on his openers and scratched the rest of his attempts. Those numbers alone are in the medal hunt and they looked very easy for him. I think for him, it is important that he hits his openers. If he does, he will have a extremely good chance of winning gold. Contenders will be Straltsou (BLR) and Chumak (UKR) but Moradi is much better. Zielinski (POL) recently tested positive so he will be out.
- Hashemi's best competition numbers are 173/212/385. With Zielinski out, there is an outside chance of a medal. But he will need to be around 175 on the snatch to give himself a chance on the C/J. 170-173 probably won't do it.

105kg - MohammadReza Barari
Monday, 3pm Pacific Time, Group A
MohammadReza's best competition total is 184/220/404 at the Fajr Cupt. At the 2016 Asian Championships, he won gold with 180/221/401. I think it will take 410 to medal. Top contenders are Nuridinov (UZB), Zaichikov (KAZ), Yang (CHN), Plesnieks (LAT), and maybe Martirosyan (ARM). Nuridinov's best competition total is 426. Zaichikov is 421. Yang is 411. After those three, everyone else's competition bests are 400-405 so if one of those three bombs or has a bad day, it will be an open competition for bronze. MohammadReza will probably need a snatch of around 183-185 to have a chance at a medal.

105+kg - Behdad Salimi
Tuesday, 3pm Pacific Time, Group A
- Salimi is the 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist, 2010 and 2011 World Championships Gold Medalist, and 2014 World Championships Silver Medalist. He currently holds the snatch world record at 2014. However, he is coming back from a torn ACL, and has not been the same since. His snatch is close to what it was before (WR is 214, and he hit 205 at Fajr Cup). But his C/J has been way off. His competition best in C/J is 255 and he missed 231 twice at Fajr Cup. Talakhadze (GEO) Minasyan (ARM), Siem (EST), and Zharnasek (BLR) are probably favorites for medals with Russians out. Talakhadze best competition numbers are 212/251/463. Minasyan is 203/234/437. Siem's snatch is weak (best competition ever is 190), but his C/J is good at 248 or more. Talakhadze will be tough to beat in Salimi's current form. My guess is Salimi goes something like 201, 205, 209 in snatch and something like 225, 231, 236 in C/J. Five out of six lifts would put him in 440-441 total range which will be in contention for silver or bronze.

At the 2015 world championships, Iran's team was a disappointing. Behrouzi (69kg) bombed C/J. Taghian (77kg) bombed C/J. Nasirshalal (105kg) bombed C/J and only went 1 for 3 in snatch. Molaei (105+) was 1 for 3 on snatch and 1 for 3 on C/J. I'm not sure what it was but in the weightlifting world, with the exception of a few stars, Iran has somewhat of a reputation for not performing on the biggest stages (compared to their training numbers). Hopefully we turn it around. All 5 of these guys have a shot at a medal if they perform well, especially with the suspensions for Russia and Zielinski. Moradi and Rostami could both win gold. LETS GO IRAN!

[The Farbod]

85kg - Kianoush Rostami
Friday 3pm Pacific Time, Group A
- Kianoush is the 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist, 2011 and 2014 World Championships Gold Medalist, and 2015 World Championships Silver Medalist. He is the current world record holder in the Clean and Jerk and Total. It will realistically be a shootout between him and Tian Tao of China for Gold. Pielieshenko (UKR) and Asayonak (BLR) have good chances for bronze. Tao's numbers on paper are as good or better than Rostami but both are inconsistent in competition. Tao bombed out at the 2015 World Championships. He does a squat jerk which is inconsistent.

94kg - Sohrab Moradi and Ali Hashemi
Saturday, 3pm Pacific Time, Group A
- Moradi is favored to win Gold and possibly break multiple world records. He has video of 200kg snatch and 240kg C/J in training. He has had a history of underperforming in competition, but at the Fajr Cup he hit 180/220 on his openers and scratched the rest of his attempts. Those numbers alone are in the medal hunt and they looked very easy for him. I think for him, it is important that he hits his openers. If he does, he will have a extremely good chance of winning gold. Contenders will be Straltsou (BLR) and Chumak (UKR) but Moradi is much better. Zielinski (POL) recently tested positive so he will be out.
- Hashemi's best competition numbers are 173/212/385. With Zielinski out, there is an outside chance of a medal. But he will need to be around 175 on the snatch to give himself a chance on the C/J. 170-173 probably won't do it.

105kg - MohammadReza Barari
Monday, 3pm Pacific Time, Group A
MohammadReza's best competition total is 184/220/404 at the Fajr Cupt. At the 2016 Asian Championships, he won gold with 180/221/401. I think it will take 410 to medal. Top contenders are Nuridinov (UZB), Zaichikov (KAZ), Yang (CHN), Plesnieks (LAT), and maybe Martirosyan (ARM). Nuridinov's best competition total is 426. Zaichikov is 421. Yang is 411. After those three, everyone else's competition bests are 400-405 so if one of those three bombs or has a bad day, it will be an open competition for bronze. MohammadReza will probably need a snatch of around 183-185 to have a chance at a medal.

105+kg - Behdad Salimi
Tuesday, 3pm Pacific Time, Group A
- Salimi is the 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist, 2010 and 2011 World Championships Gold Medalist, and 2014 World Championships Silver Medalist. He currently holds the snatch world record at 2014. However, he is coming back from a torn ACL, and has not been the same since. His snatch is close to what it was before (WR is 214, and he hit 205 at Fajr Cup). But his C/J has been way off. His competition best in C/J is 255 and he missed 231 twice at Fajr Cup. Talakhadze (GEO) Minasyan (ARM), Siem (EST), and Zharnasek (BLR) are probably favorites for medals with Russians out. Talakhadze best competition numbers are 212/251/463. Minasyan is 203/234/437. Siem's snatch is weak (best competition ever is 190), but his C/J is good at 248 or more. Talakhadze will be tough to beat in Salimi's current form. My guess is Salimi goes something like 201, 205, 209 in snatch and something like 225, 231, 236 in C/J. Five out of six lifts would put him in 440-441 total range which will be in contention for silver or bronze.

At the 2015 world championships, Iran's team was a disappointing. Behrouzi (69kg) bombed C/J. Taghian (77kg) bombed C/J. Nasirshalal (105kg) bombed C/J and only went 1 for 3 in snatch. Molaei (105+) was 1 for 3 on snatch and 1 for 3 on C/J. I'm not sure what it was but in the weightlifting world, with the exception of a few stars, Iran has somewhat of a reputation for not performing on the biggest stages (compared to their training numbers). Hopefully we turn it around. All 5 of these guys have a shot at a medal if they perform well, especially with the suspensions for Russia and Zielinski. Moradi and Rostami could both win gold. LETS GO IRAN!

This is awesome. I hope someone could do a similar write up for wrestling.

[Ab-Gosht]

personally i'm positive rostami will win atleast silver and salimi will win silver. only worry is if they start to high with sohrab, i pray to god they dont start at 190kg and if they do he makes it 1st time then he is unstopppable

[Ab-Gosht]

Ok so more doping news. Now seems both polish lifters in sohrabs weight have tested positive for doping. Both were medal hopefuls

[Bessos]

^ At this rate there won't be any opponents left and they may as well just hand over the medals to the Iranian weightlifters.

[Sharkie]

It's such a shame how the integrity of these sports have been compromised by those who seek to "boost" their chances in winning.

[Narse]

Ok so more doping news. Now seems both polish lifters in sohrabs weight have tested positive for doping. Both were medal hopefuls

dont be so sure. Corrupt ioc may still allow them to participate!

[ehsan singapore]

i just heard the 77 kg kazak who won gold was charged with doping

[EKBATAN]

personally i'm positive rostami will win atleast silver and salimi will win silver. only worry is if they start to high with sohrab, i pray to god they dont start at 190kg and if they do he makes it 1st time then he is unstopppable

how come salimi is silver? does he still hold the world record or someone else is better than him now?

[Payam_Ali]

how come salimi is silver? does he still hold the world record or someone else is better than him now?

See my original post. He is still WR holder in the snatch. But he had a bad ACL injury that required surgery and he isn't fully recovered yet. His best numbers post surgery are way off from before his injury, especially in the jerk. Here's the video of the injury. It's a little graphic. https://youtube.com/watch?v=xeQ--soa-aw

[ehsan singapore]

See my original post. He is still WR holder in the snatch. But he had a bad ACL injury that required surgery and he isn't fully recovered yet. His best numbers post surgery are way off from before his injury, especially in the jerk. Here's the video of the injury. It's a little graphic. https://youtube.com/watch?v=xeQ--soa-aw

behdad said he did 210 in snatch and 250 clean and jerk in training that is good if he did it

[Sharkie]

Behdad Salimi has gheyrat and will do everything in his power to win Gold!

[Bessos]

Has anyone watched the gruesome video of the Armenian in Weightlifting? He broke his arm during the Weightlifting event of yesterday.
I wouldn't advise to watch it if you're faint of heart.

[Ab-Gosht]

how come salimi is silver? does he still hold the world record or someone else is better than him now?

salimi destroyed his knee lifting 260kg and he's not had time to get back in 100% shape. the georgian guy will win