Tbilisi 2021: All you need to know with one month to go!

One month from now, Georgian capital Tbilisi will be hosting the strongest Para athletes on the planet during the 2021 World Para Powerlifting Junior & Senior Championships.

Tbilisi 2021 will be the ninth edition of the Para Powerlifting Worlds and here is all you need to know about the competition.

Where is the event going to take place?

The Tbilisi 2021 Worlds will be held at the Hotels & Preference Hualing Tbilisi, a five-star hotel located near the lake Tbilisi Sea.

The hotel hosted the World Cup in May, the first international World Para Powerlifting event ever to take place in Georgia.

What are the competition dates?

The Junior World Championships will take place on 27 November followed by the Senior World Championships from 28 November to 5 December.

The Mixed Team event will be held on closing day on 6 December. It will be the second time the World Championships programme includes a Mixed Team competition.

How many medals will be up for grabs?

The World Championships will have ten individual medal events plus the Mixed Team event.

Has the World Championships ever taken place in Europe?

The first World Championships took place 27 years ago in Uppsala, Sweden and the event never returned to Europe since then.

Asia hosted the Worlds on six occasions – including the last edition in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in 2019. The Americas held the competition once in 2017 in Mexico City.

What are the top three countries in the all-time World Championships medal standings?

China and Egypt have 25 gold medals each but the Asian country is ahead of the African nation by one silver and one bronze medal.

China topped the medals tally at Nur-Sultan 2019 with seven golds ahead of Iran and Nigeria with three each.

Nigeria is also in third in the all-time standings with 15 world titles.

Hosts Georgia will be aiming for the first podium in World Championships.

How many athletes will be in action at Tbilisi 2021?

A total of 475 powerlifters from 72 countries are set to compete in Georgia. This represents a 16 per cent growth compared to Nur-Sultan 2019.

Asia has the most athletes at 182 while most participant nations come from Europe (24).

Fifty-five athletes from 20 countries will compete in the Junior World Championships – a 22 per cent growth from Nur-Sultan two years ago.

What are the names to watch out for?

Due to the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be the first time the World Championships and the Paralympics take place in the same year.

Tbilisi 2021 will see 18 Tokyo Paralympic champions in action, five of them from China. The list also includes Paralympic legends such as Mexico’s Amalia Perez who bagged her fourth gold in Japan.

For others, like Egypt’s Para powerlifting hero Sherif Osman, Georgia will be the best opportunity to end the year on a high note after failing to top the podium in Japan.

The Tbilisi 2021 World Championships will be streamed live on World Para Powerlifting website and social media pages.