Weightlifting: Olympic Test Event

[Randall Strossen]

The Olympic Test Event for weightlifting is this coming weekend at London's ExCel Center:

http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2011/Dec/London_Prepares-Olympic_Test_Event_for_Weightlifting.html

I'm lucky enough to be going and look forward to seeing what Ilya Ilin and Zhou Lulu, for example, are going to uncork. They both looked impressive at the World Weightlifting Championships a month ago, so it will be interesting to see how their performances next weekend compare.

Can anybody beat either of them next year at the Olympics?!

[Chris Rice]

Am I understanding this correctly that there will only be 94 and 105 men's and then 2 women's classes - not a full meet?

[Randall Strossen]

Yes - that's correct, but it can still be pretty exciting. In 2008, the test event was what first gave us a glimmer that Matthias Steiner might be on track to do something huge at the Olympics:

http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2008/Jan/Steiner_is_the_Big_Story_in_the_Supers.html

[Chris Rice]

The 94s and 105s have some superb lifters - it should be awesome!