The IWF Executive Board over the weekend in Beijing, China. During their meetings over the course of two days, the Board approved a technical rule modification regarding the female bodyweight categories.
The Board added an 8th female bodyweight category to match the same number as their male counterparts. The new bodyweight category is 90kg with the +75kg moved to +90kg for both senior and junior ages. For youth lifters, there is a 75kg and +75kg weight class. The new weight categories would come into effect on January 1, 2017.
Following the announcement, USA Weightlifting confirmed that the new weight category will be in effect prior to the official January 1, 2017, effective date. The new qualifying totals for the 2016 American Open and the 2017 National competitions are shown below.
| New Qualifying Totals* | |||
| Existing 75kg | New 90kg | New +90kg |
|
| 2017 National Juniors | 144kg | 154kg | 160kg |
| 2017 Nationals | 189kg | 192kg | 194kg |
| 2017 National Youth 16-17 | 118kg | 122kg | 125kg |
| 2017 National University | 155kg | 159kg | 164kg |
| 2016/17 American Open | 176kg | 180kg | 184kg |
*if approved by IWF
The change 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.
The Board also made another change to the rules and removed the bodyweight tiebreaker rule. For more information, check out the article on TheBarbellSpin.com.
