Albania’s Godelli wins gold at European Weightlifting Championship

TIRANA, April 11 – 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 is being held in Tirana. Godelli also won two bronze medals in the snatch and clean and jerk finishing third in his category.
“I am very happy for this beautiful gift and very pleased with the result although I could have done better,” said the 22-year-old weightlifter.
Romela Begaj, another athlete of the Albanian national team competing in the women’s 58 kg category got a silver medal and two bronze medals.
Organized by the Albanian Weightlifting Federation, the 2013 Senior European Weightlifting Championships is taking place in the Palace of Sports in Tirana between from April 5 to 15. Some 400 weightlifters from 35 European countries are participating in the championship which is being held in Albania for the first time. Albania is represented in the championship with 12 athletes.
Weightlifting has traditionally been Albania’s best performing sport in international competitions. Albania’s performance in the London 2012 Olympics ended disappointingly after none of the athletes came close to winning a medal. It all started bad for Albania, after weightlifter Hysen Pulaku became the first athlete to be banned from the Games for doping just after the opening ceremony, leaving the Albanian team in 10 athletes.
Last June, Erkand Qerimaj was also banned by the International Olympic Committee to participate in the Olympics after failing a doping test. A European champion in Antalya 2012, Qerimaj could have been Albania’s best athlete in London.
Disappointment in weightlifting, where Albania athletes traditionally perform best grew with Romela Begaj, who managed to finish only 11th in female’s 58 kg. Begaj, 25, had made it to sixth in Beijing and won silver at the 2012 European Championships. She was also the Albanian flag bearer in the Parade of Nations but failed to achieve even her best personal results.
Briken Calja was the only Albania weightlifter to finish 9th in his men’s 69 kg category.
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.