World Record and Half a Ton . . .

29.11.1969 (Padomju Jaunatne)

Laconic lines of a teletype brought joyful news from the German Democratic Republic — 22-year-old Riga middleweight athlete Gennady Ivanchenko, participating in the Latvian SSR and GDR match, set a world record, reaching 492.5 kilograms in the classic triple! Later we learned that light heavyweight athlete Kārlis Pumpuriņš was the first Latvian athlete to reach the cherished amount — 500 kilograms in that match . Now our greatest weightlifters have returned to Riga and are starting training again. After talking with spectators and participants of the match, Honored Coach of the USSR Mikhail Freifeld and All-Union category judge Emanuel Bezmozga, as well as weightlifters, we think that readers will be interested to learn more about the start of our strongmen in the German Democratic Republic.

The most joyful, of course, is Ivanchenko's record. Her 493.5 kilograms were made up of 160 kilograms in the clean and jerk, 145 in the snatch, and 187.5 in the clean and jerk. The USSR and world record until now was 490 kilograms, but the previous world championship winner, the Japanese Outi, reached 487.5 kilograms. Ivanchenko is much younger than his Soviet rivals in this weight category, he is progressing rapidly (last year Gennady's result was only 437.5 kilograms, but in the German Democratic Republic he improved his personal best by 17.5 kilograms!) and is now the undoubted number one candidate in the USSR national team.

It is possible that he will be the first middleweight athlete in the world to lift 500 kilograms.

Riga Polytechnic Institute student Kārlis Pumpuriņš competed excellently. His "half-ton" consisted of the following numbers: 165 plus 142.5 plus 192.5 kilograms. In the snatch, Kārlis improved his personal best by 17.5 kilograms, but in the snatch, a new republican record was set in the additional run - 147.5 kilograms. He is the sixth light heavyweight athlete in the world (after Ta'ts, Juhansons, Kangasniemi, Kidjajev and Arnolds) to reach 500 kilograms. In the Soviet Union, this is the best result of the year in light heavyweight, which gives Kārlis the opportunity to compete under the flag of the Soviet Union in the national team. It should be noted that in the German Democratic Republic, Pumpuriņš lost to Karl Arnold, who reached 502.5 kilograms.

In total, the second heavyweight weightlifter Arturs Sliede was also close to half a ton. He set two republican records: in the press - 170 kilograms and in the total - 492.5 kilograms.  The unfamiliar extended Swedish-style barbell with rubber discs prevented him from showing better results - Arturs could not get used to the vibration of the barbell when raised in his hands. In the match, Sliede lost to Manfrēds Riger (535 kilograms), who won a bronze medal at the European Championship.

[...]

1969 was the brightest year in the history of Latvian weightlifting. Lebedev's victory in the USSR championship, Pumpuriņš and Ivančenko's world records, 47 times improved republican records — this is a great merit of coach Mikhail Freifelds and his students. But the year is not over yet. Let's hope that the USSR team championship, which will be held in Lviv in mid-December, and the championship of the republican council of the sports society "Dinamo" at the end of this year will make new corrections to the record tables.

J. BREŽĢIS.

LTA sports commentator