IPC Powerlifting Worlds to be shown live

The 2014 IPC Powerlifting World Championships run from 5-11 April and are the first opportunity for athletes to begin qualification for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The biggest ever IPC Powerlifting World Championships, featuring around 365 lifters from 68 countries in Dubai, UAE, will be live streamed beginning on Saturday (5 April).

The competition, which will feature all 20 of the current world-record holders, is also set to showcase some of the biggest rivalries and over 30 medallists from London 2012 beginning their road to Rio 2016.

The livestream will be available here or on the IPC’s YouTube channel.

Highlighting the competition will be the battle to break the 300kg mark in the men’s +107kg. Iranian world record holder Mansour Pourmirzaei will go head-to-head with teammate and Paralympic champion Siamand Rahman.

Pourmirzaei holds the current form, setting the bar at 276kg at November’s 2013 IPC Asian Open Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. However, Rahman spoke early in 2014 about his intent to take that crown, claiming that he had consistently broken the 300kg mark in training.

In the women’s events, Turkey’s Nazmiye Muslu’s -41kg world record (100kg) has not been touched since the 2013 IPC Powerlifting European Open Championships in Aleksin, Russia, but the Paralympic champion faces a repeat of the three-way fight from London 2012 to retain her position as the best in the world.

Muslu will face Great Britain’s Zoe Newson who will be back in international action hoping to improve on her bronze-medal performance from London after a series of wins at the national level, and China’s silver medallist Zhe Cui.

The livestream will feature commentary from Will Downing who previously lent his voice to the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, as well as for ParalympicSport.TV at London 2012 and regularly commentates for Irish broadcaster Setanta.

The 2014 IPC Powerlifting World Championships run from 5-11 April and are the first opportunity for athletes to begin qualification for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The competition also features the climax to the “Raise the Bar campaign,” which has seen powerlifters and team officials take part in education seminars as part of efforts to reduce doping in the sport.