León, Preview: Hampton Morris leads way as USA attempts to repeat 2023 success

Hampton Morris will be hoping for a third world title and more world records when he brings his junior career to a close in Spain next week.

Morris, who won Olympic bronze in his last competition six weeks ago, is one of several strong medal contenders for the United States at the IWF World Junior Championships in León, which run from September 19-27.

Three years ago he won the youth world title, setting two world records in that age group in the process. Morris claimed the junior world title at 61kg in 2022, since when he has set senior and junior clean and jerk world records, and has become the first American male to win an Olympic weightlifting medal since the 1980s.

Hampton Morris (USA)

“There’s no ceiling for Hampton Morris. The kid is amazing,” said Mike Gattone, USA’s head coach, after Paris.

Morris was listed at 67kg in the preliminary entries for León but is back at 61kg in the start book. He has lifted at 67kg only once in his six-year international career, finishing second in last year’s World Juniors to Gor Sahakyan from Armenia.

He will be 21 in February, so this will be a farewell junior appearance for Morris, who heads the entries on 285kg. His team-mate Gabriel Chhum, junior world champion at 61kg, could make it a 1-2 for Team USA.

Gabriel Chhum (USA)

Chhum was one of three winners for USA in Guadalajara, Mexico at last year’s World Juniors. The Americans topped the medals table there, and are hoping for a repeat.

Morris and Chhum at 61kg, Caden Cahoy at 73kg, Miranda Ulrey at 59kg, Katie Estep and Sophia Shaft at 64kg, and Ella Nicholson at 76kg are the strongest American contenders.

Besides USA, only Colombia and hosts Spain have a maximum team of 20 athletes. Both nations have youth or junior world champions in their teams.

Lucia Gonzalez, 17, Spain’s 49kg youth world champion, was sixth in last year’s World Juniors and tries again at the same weight.

Lucia Gonzalez (ESP)

Colombia’s top medal contenders are 18-year-old Ingrid Segura, twice a world youth champion at 64kg, Maria Mena at 71kg, Sebastian Olivares – a double continental junior champion – at 67kg and Sergio Munoz at 96kg. Another Colombian with a chance is Lawren Estrada at 45kg. She lifts at the World Juniors for the first time after winning two golds and a silver in the World Youths.

Lawren Estrada (COL)

Egypt also has multiple medal contenders. Rahma Elsayed, the 2022 youth champion and a junior bronze medallist in Guadalajara, is favourite in the women’s 87kg.

Another nation with a strong team is Armenia. Last year’s champion Aleksandra Grigoryan may find it difficult to win again at 55kg, where the senior world champion Chen Guan-Ling from Chinese Taipei is among her challengers.

Aleksandra Grigoryan (ARM)

Only one other Paris Olympian besides Morris is entered, the Weightlifting Refugee Team member Yekta Jamali, who left Iran and now lives in Germany. Jamali has a medal chance in the women’s 81kg, the weight at which she finished ninth in Paris.

China and PRK, the world’s strongest weightlifting nations, have not entered teams. The total number of athletes is 367.

By Brian Oliver