24-year-old master of sports from Ashgabat Ovez Ovezov entered the top ten weightlifters in the weight category up to 109 kg at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The medals in this weight were contested today by athletes from 14 countries.

In the first two approaches in the snatch, our compatriot successfully coped with the declared weights of 165 kg and 171 kg, and in the final attempt he could not lift 176 kg. In the clean and jerk in the very first approach, he fixed 200 kg. The next two attempts to tame the projectile weighing 210 kg and 211 kg were unsuccessful. As a result, O. Ovezov scored 371 kg in total. This is 3 kg less than he showed at the 2019 Asian Championships in Ningbo (China) and 3 kg more than at the last 2019 World Championships in Pattaya (Thailand).

For Ovez Ovezov, these are the first Olympic Games in his career. He was able to become a participant in the largest complex competitions of the four years by training at the School of Higher Sports Skills of Turkmenistan under the guidance of the head coach of the national team Artur Emiryan.

The gold medal of the Olympics in the weight up to 109 kg with Olympic records in clean and jerk and total combined was won for the first time by the world champion among juniors in 2019, two-time silver medalist of the Asian Championship Akbar Juraev (Uzbekistan) - 430 kg (193 + 237). The world record holder (435 kg), two-time world and European champion, silver medalist of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), winner of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing (China) Simon Martirosyan ( Armenia) - 423 kg (195 + 228). And bronze - the vice-champion of the world in 2017 Arturs Plesnieks (Latvia) - 410 kg (180 + 230).

At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, weightlifters are left to compete for medals in the weight category over 109 kg, in which Turkmenistan will be represented by Honored Master of Sports Hojamuhammet Toychiev.