Following a two-day meeting in Beijing, China, the IWF Executive Board announced the removal of the bodyweight tiebreaker rule. Per Rule 6.8.2, the 2nd factor in determining the ranking within a competition is “bodyweight – lowest first; if identical, then:”.
So if two athletes have the same total, the lower bodyweight at the time of weigh-in would win the tiebreaker. Measured in hundredths of kilograms, a fraction of a person’s weight has been known to decide the outcome of a competition.
The Board made the decision in an effort to “make weightlifting competitions easier to understand and increase the competitiveness.”
The modification comes in advance of next month’s meeting in which the IWF Constitution and By-Laws and the Technical and Competition Rules and Regulations committees will meet to work out the details of the rule change. Until this happens, we will not know if the 3rd factor, ” best result’s attempt(s) number – lowest first; if identical, then:” would move up in the order or if a new 2nd factor would be applied.
The Board also made another change to the rules and added an 8th bodyweight category for females. For more information, check out the article on TheBarbellSpin.com.
