World Para Powerlifting Championships
27 November - 6 December 2021

Junior Worlds kicks off 10 days of action in Tbilisi

Fifty-five athletes from 20 countries will be searching for glory in 16 medal events as the World Championships begins in the Georgian capital 26 Nov 2021
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A woman holding a bronze medal in her right hand and posing for a photo on the podium.
Great Britain's Olivia Broome is the biggest star of the Junior Worlds coming to Tbilisi as the Paralympic bronze medallist from Tokyo 2020.
ⒸHiroki Nishioka/WPPO
By World Para Powerlifting

Georgian capital Tbilisi will host the world's best Para powerlifters during ten days starting on Saturday (27 November) with the World Para Powerlifting Junior Championships followed by the Senior Worlds from 28 November to 6 December. 

Fifty-five athletes from 20 nations will be competing in 16 weight categories (eight in women's and eight in men's events) at the Hualing & Preferences Hualing Tbilisi Hotel.

The entry list saw a 22 per cent increase in participation in relation to the last Junior Worlds in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in 2019.

Brazil and Iraq topped the medals table two years ago with two gold medals each while hosts Kazakhstan had the most podiums with five medals (one gold, two silver and two bronze).

Europe has the highest number of athletes in action (19) while Asia will be represented by most countries (seven).

Men's competition

The World Championships will kick off with the men's up to 49kg at 09:00 (local time).

Brazil's Lucas Manoel dos Santos will be defending his world title set with an Americas junior record of 126kg in Nur-Sultan.

Dos Santos already had a taste of success at the senior level winning a bronze medal at the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games in Peru.

Among the 12 powerlfiters in the men's up to 49kg will also be Jordan's Mohammad Alshnaiti and Kazakhstan's Yerbolat Karibay, silver and bronze at Nur-Sultan 2019, respectively.

The programme will follow with a triple-header in the men's up to 54kg, 59kg, and 65kg categories.

Twenty-year-old Thomas Smith of Great Britain will be one of the most experienced athletes on stage in the men's up to 54kg category following his triumph in the junior competition at the Manchester 2021 World Cup.

Kazakhstan's Maxim Ten will be keen to improve on his third place in the men's up to 59kg from two years ago, while Iraq's Ahmed Al-Karkhi wants gold after settling for silver in the men's up to 65kg category at Nur-Sultan 2019.

A total of eight Para powerlifters will battle for medals in four categories (men's up to 72kg, 80kg, 88kg, and over 107kg) in what will be the last competition of the day.

Women's competition

Great Britain's Olivia Broome is the biggest star of the Junior Worlds in Tbilisi following her bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in August. 

She lifted 107kg in her second attempt in Japan to finish third behind China's gold medallist Hu Dandan and Egypt's Rehab Ahmed.

Broome will compete in the women's up to 50kg category with the event set to start at 16:00 (local time).

The women's up to 41kg will open the female competition programme with Ukraine's Kseniia Tokar defending her title from Nur-Sultan. The women's up to 45kg will follow next.

There are five more categories scheduled in the women's competition coming up (up to 55kg, up to 61kg, up to 67kg, up to 86k and over 86kg).

Mexico's Fatima Castellanos and Japan's Karin Morisaki are the two athletes who have already enjoyed the taste of the podium in Junior Worlds.

Castellanos took silver in the women's up to 55kg as Morisaki was also silver in the women's up to 67kg two years ago.

The Tbilisi 2021 World Junior & Senior Championships will be streamed live on the World Para Powerlifting website and Facebook page.

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