The Armenian weightlifting national team, participating in the European Weightlifting Championship 2010 in Minsk, Belarus has got to a wonderful start.

Armenian weightlifter Smbat Margaryan (56 kg), who is only 16 years old, won silver in snatch, clean and jerk combination (109kg +146 kg). Margaryan is the youngest and the lightest sportsman in this weight group; however, it did not stop him from becoming the vice-champion.

Margaryan performed in group B. He lifted 109kg in snatch exercise, and 146 kg – in clean and jerk. With the 255 kg combined result Margaryan was waiting for the performances of group A participants. Here there were a number of experienced weightlifters, however, only Belarusian Vitaliy Derbenev managed to outdo Margaryan registering only a one point higher combination result as compared with Margaryan’s – 256 kg. Anyway, Margaryan’s clean and jerk exercise (146 kg) remained the best, and the Armenian sportsman got a small gold medal. This and other results registered by Margaryan were new records for European juniors.

Arsen Tamrazyan (also Armenian), representing the Russian national team, is 9th in the standings (238 kg).

The list of the top ten of the European Weightlifting Championship 2010 for the 56-kg division:

1. Vitaliy Derbenev (Belarus) - 256
2. Smbat Margaryan (Armenia) - 255
3. Tom Goegebuer (Belgia) - 254
4. Gokhan Kilic (Turkey) - 251
5. Iuri Dudoglo (Moldova) - 249
6. Sedat Artuc (Turkey) - 247
7. Igor Grabucea (Moldova) - 245
8. Asen Muradov (Bulgaria) - 241
9. Arsen Tamrazian (Russia) - 238
10. Francisco J. Guirado (Spain) - 230

Note: This article, as with others collected by ArmeniaNow for this category, has been posted according to the originating source. ArmeniaNow is not responsible for its content, nor for translation.