We promised you fire in the 47s and the lifters delivered!
Two undefeated world champions went head to head in the 47kg battle of a lifetime. Heather Connor of USA took the title in 2019 in Helsingborg but she didn’t attend Halmstad 2021 where France’s Tiffany Chapon become open world champion at 20 years of age.
Chapon came in hot with 152.5kg – only half a kilo below her own world record and then pushed it up to 160.5kg on her second. She fought hard with 163kg on her third but couldn’t quite grind through. Nevertheless, going into bench, Chapon was 20kg ahead of Connor and Canada’s Simone Lai, both on 140kg.
Chapon opened her bench at 90kg and then took the world record with 96kg for her second. This lift was right on the limit though and no one was surprised when she didn’t come out for a third. A surprise silver medal went to Nour Al Jundi of Thailand in her first international with her only successful bench of 75kg and Lai took bronze with the same weight.
At sub-total, Chapon had a 41.5kg lead over Lai with Connor 2.5kg further back but Connor still had her super power in hand – her massive deadlift. Was Chapon’s huge sub-total enough to hold off the assault from the deadlift queen? Chapon opened with a comfortable looking 160kg, smashing Wei-Ling Chen’s long standing total record by 9kgs. An incredible achievement with just her opening deadlift. Connor came out for a world record 185kg deadlift but lost her balance a little and the lift was turned down. Chapon came out for a junior world record of 167.5kg – it wasn’t on the limit but there didn’t look to be a huge amount left.
Connor made short work of 185kg on her second attempt, extending her own world record by 9kg. Chapon made her 3rd deadlift of 170kg look easier than her second, extending the junior deadlift record and the open total record by another 2.5kg. Connor had initially asked for 211.5kg for her third but with Chapon’s successful 3rd, she conceded defeat and changed her attempt to 193kg. Unfortunately, this was just too heavy on the day and Tiffany Chapon took the 47kg world title ahead of Heather Connor with Simone Lai taking the bronze.
Phenomenal lifting from end to end and this championships is only just getting started.
