Albanian weightlifters shine at World Championship

“Finally I made it. I had been working intensively for six months. It was both luck and hard work. I dedicate my champion title to all Albanians,” Daniel Godelli told reporters.
TIRANA, Nov. 13 – Albanian weightlifters made history in the world weightlifting championship in Kazakhstan this week after winning three gold medals.
Daniel Godelli became the first Albanian to win World Championship gold in any sport on the Olympic programme. Godelli, 22, who competed in the men’s 77 kg, failed with a brave world-record attempt of 211 kg in the clean-and-jerk, but his total of 369 kg gave him overall victory by two kilograms.
“Finally I made it. I had been working intensively for six months. It was both luck and hard work. I dedicate my champion title to all Albanians,” Godelli told reporters.
Last year, Albania’s Daniel Godelli won a gold medal in the men’s 69 kg category at the European Senior Weightlifting Championship which for the first time was held in Tirana. Meanwhile, Romela Begaj also won a gold medal in the IWF Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan this week after lifting 113 kg in women’s 63 kg snatch.
No Albanian lifter had won a gold medal at the World Championships before. Romela Begaj took bronze at the women’s 5 8kg in 2011 and Ilirian Suli took silver at the men’s 85kg in 2002. President Bujar Nishani, Prime Minister Edi Rama and opposition leader Lulzim Basha congratulated the Albanian weightlifters on their international success.
Weightlifting has traditionally been Albania’s best performing sport in international competitions.
The London 2012 was Albania’s sixth participation in the Olympic Games since its debut in 1972. Albania sent a team of four shooters and a weightlifter to the Munich 1972 Olympic Games but the team did not reappear at the Olympic Games until 1992 when the communist regime collapsed.
In 1972, Albania’s Ymer Pampuri broke the Olympic record for the press at featherweight and finished ninth overall. More recently, Ilirjan Suli finished fifth in the men’s middleweight category at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and Romela Begaj was sixth in the women’s lightweight at Beijing 2008. In Beijing, Albania’s team of 11 was the largest in their history.