Valery Kuznichenko
History in Color:
August 2, 1979, Leningrad, Russia – Heavyweight Valery Kuznichenko of Brovary, Ukraine performs a clean-and-jerk lift in the 110kg class at the 1979 USSR Championships / 7th USSR Spartakiade in Leningrad.
Valery Kuznichenko (b. 1953) was one of the promising Soviet heavyweights of the late 1970s – early 1980s. He was trained by Yakov Krinitsky, the lead Ukrainian coach of the time.
Valery Kuznichenko won 2 USSR Championships (1977, 1978) and received a bronze medal at the 1981 USSR Cup.
On December 24, 1981, Kuznichenko clean-and-jerked a world record 240.5kg at the 1981 USSR Cup in Donetsk and became a world record holder.
At the 1979 USSR Spartakiade (shown on the History in Color cover), Valery Kuznichenko took the 4th place with 395kg (172.5 + 222.5) total.