:: 8/18/2008: arthur chidlovski, boston , usa
Just a few thoughts for the supers upcoming event... It's actually a touch one with Rezazadeh withdrawn from competition. At Lift Up, for some reason back in June, I thought that Reza might end up with a bomb out. For some reason, the old picture of the 1980 when Alexeev bombed out in Moscow kept popping up in my mind. Oh well, he decided not to compete. Without Reza, there is no consensus on who the winner might be. Viktors Scerbatihs from Latvia will be 34 in October and he definitely deserves the honor since he won the last WC and had a rock solid performance in the last Olympic cycle. He is a great technician, great guy, great competitor and winning the Olympic gold could be a climax of his long career in this sport. Most definitely he deserves the gold. Matthias Steiner from Germany is simply amazing. His progress is ground breaking and he seems simply unstoppable. My guess is that he will peak even more tomorrow! Most definitely he is ready for the gold. Can Evgeny Chigishev from Russia break in as a gold medal contender tomorrow? With his potential, he definitely can - if he reaches for the gold and max up in both snatch and clean-and-jerk. So far, it's a dual impression of Team Russia performance and certainly no high expectations on ground breaking lifts. This tournaments is by all means dominated by superb Asian athletes. South Korea has Sang-Guen Jeon listed for the supers, I don't know much about him - just that he did 200+240 in April in Korea and ranked as # 5 this year. Then there are Shymechko and Udachin from Ukraine, Salem from Qatar, Kleszcs from Poland who can always use their chance to earn a place on the medal stand.

:: 8/1/2008: Rob Macklem, , Canada
1st Steiner GER he's on a roll 2nd Chigishev RUS 3rd Salem QAT, perhaps going out on a limb. 4th Scerbatihs( may be in for a medal but will be hard pressed to do so.)

:: 7/24/2008: Rob Earwicker, , USA
Evgeny CHIGISHEV 1st, Matthias STEINER 2nd, Viktors SCERBATIHS 3rd, Thats my bet !!! Rob Earwicker FIT BBC

:: 7/24/2008: SI Magazine, , USA
1. Hossein Rezazadeh, Iran; 2. Viktor Scherbatihs, Latvia; 3. Matthias Steiner, Germany. Iranian TV carried Rezazadeh's wedding live in 2003

:: 7/23/2008: NEWS, NEWS , WORLD
Rezazadeh kisses weightlifting goodbye Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:36:43 Four-time heavyweight world champion Hossein Rezazadeh has ended his weightlifting career due to medical reasons, a report says. Doctors have prohibited the Iranian heavyweight-weightlifting champion from taking part in any sports activity, ISNA reported Wednesday without disclosing any of the medical reasons. The report comes three weeks before the beginning of the Beijing Olympics, where Rezazadeh was expected to win his third Olympic gold medal. In a letter to the Iranian Weightlifting Federation, Rezazadeh confirmed that he would not be taking part in any sport event. The Iranian champion won several gold medals in various international sport events, including two gold medals at Sydney and Athens Olympics in 2000 and 2004.

:: 6/24/2008: Ryan Kyle, , USA
Rezazadeh will win. Steiner second and Chigishev if he's game will get third. I think he will santch 205-210 and jerk 245+ but i think steiner will be game for 205 and 250 or more.

:: 6/24/2008: Rob Macklem, , Canada
gold for Raza if he lifts with Steiner,Chigishev,Scerbatihs,Cholakov fighting it out for the remainder. Scerbatihs is a favorite of mine...but I have to go with youth so my guess he won't medal.

Please submit your forecast, opinions and comments about the SUPER HEAVYWEIGHT CLASS outlook at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing using the form below.

Contribute!