This past weekend (December 11-14, 2015), nine athletes from the USA competed in the 2015 IWF Grand Prix and Russian Federation Presidents Cup in Grozny, Chechen Republic. The International event featured limited weight classes with only 10-12 athletes competing in each.
Sarah Robles, following up on her 6th place finish at the 2015 IWF World Championships, took Gold in the +75kg weight class with a 124-154–278kg. Alexandra Aborneva, Kazakhstan, took Silver with a 256kg total. Robles was the only American athlete to medal.
Team USA had two other women compete. Angelica Figueroa of Team USA posted an 89-120–209kg in the +75kg weight class for 6th place. Samantha Zimmerman (75kg) failed to post a snatch, but posted a 115kg clean and jerk.
On the men’s side, Norik Vardanian set an American Record with a 171kg snatch in the 94kg weight class, breaking Jared Fleming’s record of 170kg. Vardanian finished in 6th with 171-202–373kg. Ian Wilson and David Garcia competed in the 105kg weight class taking 9th and 10th respectively. Both Wilson and Garcia posted 357kg totals with the tiebreak going to Wilson. In the +105kg weight class, Cameron Swart and Spencer Moorman represented Team USA. Swart posted 162-208–370kg and Moorman finished with 160-200-360kg. Swart and Moorman finished 10th and 11th, respectively.
The highlight of the competition was Ilya Ilyin’s world record clean and jerk in the 105kg weight class. Ilyin clean and jerked 246kg, breaking his own record of 242kg set back in November 2014.
