Qatar’s al-Mana elected Asian Weightlifting Federation president for another term

Qatar’s Mohamed Yousef al-Mana has been re-elected as President of the Asian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) with absolute majority at the Electoral Congress, which witnessed the participation of 44 members of AWF.
Al-Mana has been elected for a third term of four years at the Electoral Congress held on the sidelines of the 9th West Asian Championships (for men) and 7th Qatar Cup (for men and women).
Al-Mana, who is the president of the Arab Weightlifting Federation (AWF) and a member of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), later addressed the gathering held at Radisson Blu Hotel Doha.
Mohamed Ahmed al-Harbi, President of the Saudi Weightlifting Federation, won the position of Secretary-General of AWF unopposed.
Iraq’s Mohamed Hassan Jalood, President of the IWF, bagged the position of First Vice-President of AWF.
Jalood ongratulated al-Mana on his latest electoral win.
In a statement released on Wednesday night, Jalood said: “Mr Mohamed Yousef al-Mana will provide more efforts in the future in order to develop Asian weightlifting during the coming period.”
Jalood lauded the boom in weightlifting in Qatar in recent years. He said that the Qatar Cup scheduled in Dec 2023 will be one of the seven qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
He added: “Qatar continues to host and deliver superbly organised weightlifting tournaments in various age brackets for men, women and juniors.”
The IWF president stated that the number of weights in the Olympics was reduced from 12-10, with five for women: 49kg, 59kg, 71kg, 81kg, over 81kg, and five for men: 61kg, 73kg, 89kg, 102kg, over 102kg.
He pointed out that the next edition of the Qatar Cup will have a participation of world champions especially as it is one of the international tournaments that will pave way for berths at the 2024 Olympics.
In turn, al-Harbi, President of the Saudi Weightlifting Federation and Secretary-General of the Asian Weightlifting Federation, praised the efforts of al-Mana in developing the Asian Weightlifting Federation throughout the last period, referring to the huge leap that it witnessed in the recent period.
Al-Harbi said he will seek to contribute to the development of the sport in Asia and raise the status of this sport globally.
He added that weightlifting at the Saudi level is witnessing remarkable progress and great development, which was evident when the men’s and women’s teams won 81 medals in Doha last week.
He indicated that Saudi Arabia will host in September the world championship that will also be a qualifying event for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. “We will host the largest world championship of its kind as it will witness the participation of more than 1,500 male and female weightlifters representing more than 130 countries,’ he said.
Zayed Mubarak al-Khayarin, Executive Director of the QWF, said under al-Mana’s leadership the sport of weightlifting is set to see ‘massive growth’ in the next few years.