Tbilisi 2021: Day six preview

With four days to go until the end of the competition, there is still a lot of great action coming up at the Tbilisi 2021 World Para Powerlifting Championships.

Day six (3 December) will provide two great battles for the World Championships glory in the women's up to 86kg and men's up to 80kg categories.

Morning session

The programme at the Hualing Ballroom will kick off at 10:00 (local time) on Friday with the women's competition in which Nigeria's Folashade Oluwafemiayo should have the upper hand on her rivals.

The 36-year-old Oluwafemiayo is the reigning double world champion and a gold medallist from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. She set the new world record twice in Tokyo lifting 151kg and 152kg in her third and fourth (power lift) attempt.

Oluwafemiayo already broke the world record once before the Paralympic Games at the Manchester 2021 World Cup lifting 150,5kg.

In a league of her own in 2021, Oluwafemiayo should not have issues in taking her third straight gold at the Worlds.

China's Fenfei Zheng will try to make an upset in the women's up to 86kg category as the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist and the last two World Championships editions.

Great Britain's Louise Sugden, the bronze medallist from the last Paralympic Games, will face a tough challenge in the battle for a medal against Egypt's Amany Ali who won bronze at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

Among others to watch out for in the women’s up to 86kg event are Jordan’s Tharwat Alhajjaj, Rio 2016 medallists, and Lee Young-sun of South Korea, who is the Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games silver medallist.

Afternoon session

Starting at 13:05 (local time), the men's up to 80kg category will close the curtain on day six of the World Championships action. There are four groups of athletes on the schedule.

Iran's reigning Paralympic and world champion Roohallah Rostami is the clear favourite to gold again at the World Championships stage.

Only three months ago he comfortably won the Paralympic gold lifting 225kg, 228kg, and 234kg before the unsuccessful 'power lift' attempt to break his world record (241kg). Rostami set the world record at the Bangkok 2021 World Cup in May.

His main rival is set to be China's Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic silver medallist Gu Xiaofei who also has four World Championships medals to his name.

Egypt’s Mohamed Elelfat, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist, will try to make an upset as well as. Elelfat has another Paralympic medal to his tally from London 2012 where he won the silver medal in up to 75kg category.

Lima 2019 Parapan American Games gold medallist Francisco Palomeque Palacios of Colombia and Great Britain's Micky Yule, bronze at Tokyo 2020 in the men's up to 72kg category, should also be among the mix.

Yule is switching categories for the World Championships together with Iraq's Rasool Mohsin, the London 2012 Paralympic silver medallist. Up until the Tokyo 2020, they both competed in the men's up to 72kg category.

The home crowd will be cheering for Ahmad Razm Azar of Georgia who won fifth place at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. He has experience at the Hualing Ballroom as the winner of this year's Tbilisi 2021 World Cup.

The Tbilisi 2021 World Para Powerlifting Championships is live streamed on the World Para Powerlifting website and the World Para Powerlifting Facebook page.

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