Siripuch’s mission in Rio remains tough though Russian gets IWF ban
Although Russian weightlifters had received a ban from world’s weightlifting-governing body IWF on Friday, Thai weightlifter Siripuch Gulnoi, who made a clean sweep of three gold medals at this year’s Asian Weightlifting Championships at Tashkent, Uzbekis
The pint-sized Siripuch, who stands 155cm tall and weighs 57.75kg, will be pitted against the world’s best in the women’s 63kg category at the August 5-21 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
As IWF have already announced the entry list for the Olympic Games in Rio, a total of 16 weightlifters have initially confirmed their participation in the Games. However, following the ban, Russian Tima Turieva, silver medallist at the last year’s IWF World Championships in Houston, the USA, cannot compete in the Games, leaving only 15 competitors to vie for the gold medal.
Nevertheless, the missing of Turieva from the Rio Games does not give any advantage to the 23-year-old Siripuch, known formerly as Rattikan, as the Thai weightlifter still faces a daunting challenge from Chinese Deng Wei, who captured three gold medals at the last year’s World Championships, DPRK’s Choe Hyo Sim, bronze medallist in Houston and Kazakhstan’s Karina Goricheva, fifth place in the world meet. Many strong opponents from Europe and South America are also expected to issue a strong threat against Siripuch.
