Fares partners with Malta’s Yazmin to win IWF street Weightlifting Championships

Qatar’s Olympic champion Fares Ibrahim El Bakh teamed up with Malta’s Yazmin Stevens to win the inaugural IWF street Weightlifting Championships at Quartier du Flon in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Sunday.The duo were part of the Team Ambassador in the mixed gender event. Fares and Yazmin lifted a combined weight of 535kg and with 891.9 Robi points won title. Team Italy (Martina Bomben and Fabio Pizzolato) took silver, while Team Germany (Sabine Kusterer and Ruben Hofmann) had to settle for bronze.This new exciting mixed team format of weightlifting featured 14 of the world’s best athletes and Olympians from Europe, South America, and the Middle East. The new competition format saw two athletes from the same country compete together against the other teams in an outdoor setting providing a unique and exciting atmosphere.Compared to other IWF events the results were based on ROBI points as different bodyweight categories were represented across the teams.Fares, who became Qatar’s first ever Olympic champion at Tokyo Olympics, is one of the four IWF Athlete Ambassadors, the others being Yazmin Stevens, Hidilyn Diaz (Philippines), and Lesman Paredes (Colombia). Fares said: “As a top-level athlete, I am thrilled and honoured to contribute back to the sport and the weightlifting community. The IWF is now consistently displaying their commitment to clean, equal, and fair sport and I am looking forward to participating in Lausanne, the Olympic capital.”