A show of strength from the Colombians, a heavyweight victory for Germany and some important lessons for Games organisers were the takeaways as the Rio 2016 weightlifting test event ended on Sunday night (10 April) at Carioca Arena 1.

With six gold medals and four silvers, Colombia was the dominant nation at the four-day Aquece Rio South American World Championships, which was the 33rd Rio 2016 test event and the first of eight to be staged this month. Ecuador finished second in the medal table with two golds, three silvers and three bronzes, followed by Brazil on two golds, two silvers and six bronzes.

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A total of 120 athletes from 13 countries competed in the event in Barra Olympic Park, including specially invited weightlifters from the USA, Germany, Panama and Thailand. And it was German Almir Velagic who won the big showdown on Sunday, seeing off fellow Olympic medal hope Fernando Reis of Brazil in the heavyweight +105kg category. Reis suffered an elbow injury and was taken to hospital, leaving the path clear for the Bosnia-born German. “I managed to break my personal best in the clean and jerk”, said a pleased Velagic.

Velagic missed the European championships in order to travel to Rio, which he said was a city that had fascinated him from afar since he was a child. “I'm already qualified for the Olympics so I prefered to come here and prepare better for August,” he said

“Visiting Rio de Janeiro has been a dream come true for me”

Almir Velagic
 

Almir Velagic won the battle of the heavyweights (Photo: Rio2016/Daniel Ramalho)

Colombia’s success came even without a medal for their leading lifter, London 2012 silver medallist Oscar Figueroa, who revealed before the event that he is using meditation and plenty of contact with nature as he battles back from surgery on his back in January. After finishing fourth in the -69kg class, Figueroa said: “As a comeback, it was very positive. I’m still recuperating.”

Francisco Mosquera, who was also returning from a back operation, took gold for Colombia in the -62kg category, and said he was pleased by what he had seen in Rio. “For me everything was great,” he said. “I know there is still a bit to do, but in August everything will be fine.”

Luis Javier Mosquera won the -69kg event for Colombia (Photo:Getty Images/Buda Mendes)

Sam Coffa, vice president of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) was also satisfied with the test event. “We can say that it was excellent,” he said. “The arena, transport, food, accommodation. The volunteers were also very good in integrating with the technical officials.” Coffa did, however, listen to feedback from the athletes and coaches regarding issues with the platforms, which he believes will be solved for the Games.

Gustavo Nascimento, Rio 2016’s venues director, also said the event had been success, highlighting the testing of the results system and the work of the volunteers. He said the issue of the platform surface being damaged by the repetitive blows it received as lifters dropped the weights onto it was resolved by reinforcing the surface with another platform underneath. “We need to be certain that the solution that we adopted will work at Riocentro (the venue for the Olympic events) so we will be doing more tests and making a prototype.”

 The other issue was that some athletes said the platform was a bit slippery, to which Coffa acknowledged it was a new surface and said that a report would be sent to the manufacturers so that a solution could be found before the Games, stressing that the safety of the athletes was paramount.