Iran’s Davoudi, Yousefi win medals at 2024 IWF World Championships

TEHRAN – Iranians super-heavyweights Ali Davoudi and Alireza Yousefi won a silver and a bronze medal at the 2024 IWF World Championships in Bahrain on Sunday.

Varazdat Lalayan from Armenia, second to triple Olympic champion Lasha Talakhadze in Paris in August, came out on top in a battle between three men who collectively weighed more than 520kg.

Davoudi also failed with his first two attempts in clean and jerk before giving Iran’s noisy supporters something to cheer. His final lift left him on 206-253-459.

Alireza Yousefi lifted 194kg and needed 262kg to take clean and jerk gold and bronze on total – and there were more cheers when he made it. The Iranian pair won five medals between them.