Tbilisi 2021: Day one preview

The Tbilisi 2021 World Senior Championships starts on Sunday (28 November) marking the first time the competition takes place in Europe since the first edition in Uppsala, Sweden in 1994. 

Georgia will see the largest Para powerlifting competition in 2021 with 443 athletes from 68 nations - a growth in participation by 16 per cent compared to Nur-Sultan 2019.

The 2021 Worlds will be held in the Hualing Ballroom of the Hotels & Preference Hualing Tbilisi until 6 December.

Six countries will make their World Championships debut in the Georgian capital: Cyprus, Haiti, Peru, Portugal, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. 

Morning session

The Senior Worlds will kick off with the men's up to 49kg category. Jordan's Omar Qarada, the reigning Paralympic champion, will be going for more glory and a second world title. His first came 11 years ago in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The 40-year-old Qarada won silver at Nur-Sultan 2019 and Mexico City 2017 repeating his results from the Paralympic Games in Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016.

Le Van Cong from Vietnam will be Qarada's main rival for gold in Tbilisi having lost out to Jordan's Para powerlifter in the battle for first place at the Tokyo 2020. He is also the reigning world champion from Nur-Sultan 2019.

Azerbaijan's Parvin Mammadov, a bronze medallist from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, will be looking to make an upset, as well as Nigeria's London 2012 Paralympic champion Yakubu Adesokan.

Jhon Jairo Perez Alejandria will make Peru's debut at the World Championships in the men's up to 49kg category. The competition starts at 10:00 (local time) with three groups on the schedule.

Afternoon session

Female athletes will start their battle for medals at the Worlds in the women's up to 41kg category.

China's reigning Paralympic champion and world record holder Lingling Guo is expected to shine again as she did in Tokyo three months ago lifting 108kg in her third attempt. The 32-year-old Chinese athlete will be defending two successive world titles in Tbilisi.

Her main rivals will be Indonesia's Ni Nengah Widiasih and Clara Fuentes Monasterio from Venezuela. Widiasih took silver and Fuentes Monasterio bronze at Tokyo 2020. Widiasih also has a bronze medal from Rio 2016 to her name.

The competition starts at 15:00 (local time) with two groups of athletes taking on the stage. Simone Machado Fragoso from Portugal will be one of them making the country's debut at the World Championships.

The women's up to 45kg will close the action on day one starting at 18:00 (local time).

There will also be two groups of Para powerlifters battling for medals with Nigeria's Paralympic champion Latifat Tijani as the main favourite to gold.

Tijani caused a huge upset at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics defeating China's Cui Zhe, reigning world and Asian Para Games champion. The Chinese is also one of the stars of the Netflix documentary ‘Rising Phoenix’, about the history of the Paralympic Movement.

Poland's Justyna Kozdryk is another podium contender in Tbilisi. The 41-year-old won bronze in Tokyo to round up the Paralympic podium.

The Tbilisi 2021 World Para Powerlifting Championships will be livestreamed on the World Para Powerlifting website and Facebook page.

Complete schedule and results are available at the Tbilisi 2021 microsite.