León, Day 5: Simoneau stars for Canada at ‘perfect weight’ – and Korea’s Dae Hee hits 200kg mark

Charlotte Simoneau gave the perfect performance at her perfect weight to claim Canada’s first title of the 2024 World Junior Championships in León, Spain.

Korea also had its first gold when Dae Hee Kwon ended the men’s 81kg evening session with a huge clean and jerk of 200kg. Both winners made all six lifts.

At last year’s World Juniors in Guadalajara, Mexico, Simoneau competed at 64kg, having moved up from 59kg the year before. Now she is up again to 71kg and feeling better than ever.

Charlotte Simoneau (CAN)

“This is my perfect weight,” she said after a six-from-six 110-130-240 that left her clear of the field. “I have more confidence in my body, I’m not having to cut weight, I feel stronger and I’m not getting any injuries.”

Her confidence has increased along with her weight. At last year’s World Juniors, Simoneau and her coach Yvan Darsigny opted for the less-pressurised B Group. She finished second regardless.

Simoneau is now looking forward to her first senior World Championships in Bahrain in December. “My preparation for this was as good as it gets. I was making 111-131 in training. I’ll be happy with 112-132 in Bahrain.”

Simoneau, 19, is studying natural science and works in her grandparents’ flower shop at weekends – when she is not competing. She trains five to eight times a week.

When told that Mohammed Jalood, the IWF President who presented the medals, had said she could be “Canada’s next Maude Charron”, Simoneau laughed and said, “Let’s see. I will try to do my best.”

Damary Nazareno (ECU)

Damary Nazareno from Ecuador finished second on her international debut, making 106-125-231. Simoneau and Nazareno were the only two of 13 A Group lifters to make their final attempt.

Janette Ylisoini from Finland would have moved up to second if she had made 128kg. She failed but was happy with a bronze medal with her four-from-six 104-124-228.

Ylisoini had not made more than one snatch in any of her past five competitions. “I failed with my first two in Phuket (at the IWF World Cup in April) so it was nice to start with good lifts, it gave me more confidence,” said Ylisoini, 18, who equalled her best competition total.

It was a second world bronze medal in four weeks for Ylisoini, a high school student who was third in the sub-junior Powerlifting World Championships in Malta last month. “I like both sports,” she said.

Janette Ylisoini (FIN)

Maria Mena from Colombia was second in snatch, 1kg behind Simoneau, but bombed out in clean and jerk. The B Group lifter Chen Hsin-Ning from Chinese Taipei took clean and jerk silver on 126kg and finished seventh on total.

In the men’s event Mohamed Elsayed, the African senior champion, led by 5kg at halfway and after five good lifts he was ahead by the same margin. But 18-year-old Dae Hee had two attempts to come and made the first at 196kg to secure victory.

Dae Hee Kwon (KOR)

He then finished off with 200kg, which was within 8kg of Karlos Nasar’s junior world record. Dae Hee finished 156-200-356, Elsayed made 161-189-350, and third-placed Yerasyl Saulebekov from Kazakhstan made 154-190-344.

Mohamed Elsayed (EGY)

Dae Hee’s only previous international appearance was at the World Youth Championships last year, when he was second with a total of 316kg – 40kg lower than today.

The man who beat him then, Levan Ochigava from Georgia, was sixth today. Ochigava’s team-mate Goga Jajvani finished fourth and took clean and jerk bronze after an impressive save on his final attempt at 186kg.

Yerasyl Saulebekov (KAZ)

There was an even more impressive rescue act in the B Group when the American Hutton Boles had his feet over the edge of the platform after losing control on his third snatch, but recovered and stepped backwards to make a personal record 150kg.

By Brian Oliver