KUALA LUMPUR: Despite the good news that national weightlifting champion Mohamad Aniq Kasdan (pix) confirmed his slot to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by finishing the final qualifying campaign in Phuket, Thailand, there are concerns about his overall strength at the moment.
The Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) president Datuk Ayub Rahmat said the country’s weightlifter only managed to lift a total of 290 kilogrammes (kg) compared to the target of 300kg set by the sport’s governing body at the ongoing IWF (International Weightlifting Federation) World Cup Championships.
“Indeed we saw before going to Phuket that his position will not be affected by his performance at the tournament. We only set targets to improve the ranking and the amount of weight lifted.
“Thankfully he is allowed to go to Paris, but in Phuket this is less encouraging. Before this we trained in Aceh for a month to improve amount of weight lifted but we don’t know why it didn’t happen, so we will study. He once recorded 296kg in Qatar (last December),” he said when contacted.
Ayub said at the same time, it is of concern that athletes from other countries had already started to show improvement in lifting more than 300kg to compete in the Paris Olympics.
“While the athletes of the United States and Thailand who were below Aniq’s previous numbers, have surpassed him with quite impressive numbers. To get a medal (Olympic) you need to be able to lift at least 300kg to 310kg.
“I have asked the coach to see why the decline happened and what the cause was. We have also seen that trainings abroad do not have an impact on increasing the weight cleared,“ he said.
According to Ayub, the 21-year-old athlete will fly a week earlier to Paris in preparation to adapt to the conditions there before taking part in the prestigious games which will take place from July 26 to August 11.
Yesterday, Mohamad Aniq Kasdan became the sixth national athlete to confirm a slot for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Mohamad Aniq joined five other athletes who previously qualified for Paris 2024, namely Bertrand Rhodict Lises (diving), Nur Shazrin Mohd Latif (sailing), Johnathan Wong (shooting), Ariana Nur Dania Mohd Zairi (archery) and Nur Aisyah Mohd Zubir (road cycling). -Bernama
