Frankmary Duno of Peru lit up the platform with her charismatic style – she shone brightly on the squat, taking the gold medal with 192.5kg. Home nation lifter Karen Hesthammer also looked superb on all three attempts and took the silver with a beautiful 190kg. Ukraine’s Anastasiya Derevyanko gave us a fright, struggling to get to depth with her first two squats but rocketing onto the podium with her third of 185kg.
After missing her bench opener, Aigul Sitdikova of ROC smashed her own world record with an incredible 165.5kg press, shooting straight into the lead from 5th place. Duno kept the pressure on but couldn’t overcome Aigul’s 30kg bench advantage.
The battle for the podium heated up however when Ukraine’s Anastasiya Derevyanko missed her second and third deadlifts which opened the door for Natalia Salnikova (ROC) to sneak past and snatch the bronze on her third pull. Special mention goes to GBR’s Emma Goodwin who looked set to take the deadlift world record with 195.5kg but was let down by grip right at the top and hed to settle for the deadlift gold medal instead. An exciting finish to a great session and a brilliant start to the competition.
