The Craziest Training Day We’ve Ever Filmed | Worlds 2026 Day 2

Okay, so today turned into a pretty insane 1v1 battle analysis, first look I guess, between Abdo Younes and Jason Lopez, the two top 85s in the world by Sinclair, the two best weightlifters in the world. And we got to see both of them in very different contexts, very different types of training sessions, but I think they said a lot. Jason as always you know he's a veteran, he's a world champion, he's an Olympic medalist, he's done he's done it all and the way that he walks in and holds and presents himself is just that. He radiates peace, calm, confidence, he knows exactly what he's doing, he hit some back squats, showed off his leg strength, we saw him working up to that kind of 260 kilo range just like nothing I mean he's got about as strong as anyone's gonna have legs in that 85 kilo class. Muscle snatching, you know, a bit of a Les Moon Pereira style muscle snatch then snatch series. So muscle snatch, I'm not sure what it was up to, sort of about 100, maybe 110 range. Range. And then snatches, just cool and calm, 160 kilos, make, make, make, just looked effortless. No doubt we're going to see him go heavier at some point. You know, he did 180 clean and jerks yesterday, 160 snatches today. He's going to do more. We'll probably see him snatch at least 170, clean and jerk at least 200. You know, he's still, you know, over a week out at this point probably. But he looked great. He looked great. I still think he's the frontrunner in this session. I still think he's the only athlete here who can total 400, which is a truly historic total at that bodyweight. You know, Kianoush Rostami held the old world record in the old 85 class at 396. So 397 and above would be monstrous at 85. And I think he's got it in him one day. Maybe here. Okay, so yeah, it turned out to actually be a pretty good session for Rahmat. He hit 150 in the snatch after a couple of singles at 140, looked very smooth, looked kind of like the last lift in the back room before coming out for a 155 type opener on the platform. He then did some back squats, three doubles at 220 kilos. Kaderman just turned up, walked past behind me, looking very good in the new weightlifting house core range. He's going to do some clean and jerks now, not quite sure what up to. A little bit of a translational issue, but I know he's going to do clean and jerks. Team China just turned up, so that's going to be our first look at the home team. We've got Pei Jianyi at 61, we've got Lao Guifang 86, Ding Hongzhi's here, Zhang Haiqin at 53, the new 95 whose name I can't fully remember, maybe his last name is Pei Jian. So we're going to spend some time filming them, seeing how they go on. and so on. Yeah, it's going to tell us a lot, I think, about the state of Team China. There's a lot of pressure on them right now. Obviously, home nation going up against North Korea, who have kind of dominated them over the last two, three years, ever since Asian Games 2023. So they've got a lot to prove. Certainly, the women's team is capable of winning more golds, I think, than North Korea. On the men's side, I'm not so sure. So there's a lot of pressure on the men's team right now. Oh, yeah, Liu Hanhua, Giga Chad. Not here, but often they... Often Team China separates into two teams, I've seen him come and train later, I remember in Saudi 2023, he trained on his own later with some of the heavier boys, so maybe expect to see him come in soon, it's not the full team, it's definitely not the full team, I think they've split into two. Thank you. Okay, so the China-North Korea rivalry is huge, but I mean it's not purely just between those two, I mean China basically has to reassert its dominance as the number one team of the 21st century. Lying down over there is our new 95. He's going to obviously be going up against guys like Carlos, Ali Alipour, Nagisa, Joksa. He's got a lot to prove as well if he wants to try and be the number one Chinese 95. He's got to sort of supplant Tu Yi, who's not here at this Worlds. Well, now we've found... Just in the back there at 86, made a very smart move to bump up from 77, avoid Olivia. She's got a pretty good chance there. dominating this category obviously Sulfred competes here but she's not at this Worlds. Pei Jingyi who you know as a 17 year old turned up demolished the 63s in 2022 absolutely amazing and then sort of played second place to Lu Shifang but now she's kind of stepped up at least recently and is their number one pick so she's got a very tough battle against more from China in the 61s as North Korea. It's a very, very stacked category. A lot of pressure and expectation on this first session. I think also they're feeling it like They've been very controlling of Chinese media filming them and letting the Chinese sort of coverage get out within Chinese social apps, so they're being very protective. There's probably going to be a little bit of coaches standing in front of cameras purposely to avoid different shots, so we're going to be a bit more agile, but we'll get as much as we can. Yang Liliwei, who won the Asian Games, the new 61, who I'd never seen in person before, I didn't even realize it was her until she started lifting heavier and heavier. she worked up to 105 kilos in the hang snatch for four doubles and the world record is like 111 i think so that is just extraordinarily heavy weight for her to be hitting in the training hall i suppose she's maybe a week out but i don't think i've ever seen an athlete at that body weight do anything that impressive in the snatch in a training hall before so that was pretty historic Chen Feijian, the new 95, was at the back. He power cleaned up to 190 kilos. A little tough on the power clean, but it's a big power. But he was sort of staring directly opposite Keidemar Vainia, who looked very, very strong in the clean and jerk. He built up 205 kilos was his max. I think after his 195, I turned and the Chinese coaches were shaking their heads, somewhat in disbelief, and also kind of, I think, laughing. about how much stronger he was than Chen Feijian and then his 205 was equally just as easy so he looks to be in great shape very high spirits as always which is nice to see. I didn't catch much of what other Venezuelans were doing we did film it but we'll show some of that at some point. Such an emotional prolific big face in weightlifting in just a year I mean he turned up to the world championships one year ago. with 11 cameras around him and now here we are one year later and honestly things have changed a bit we spoke about his sort of inability to control his energy and his emotion and his passion this time he seemed a lot more a lot more gathered a lot more in control you can see you know the way he's there like it's trying to come out but he's he's harnessing it a bit and he did well under a lot of pressure a lot of cameras very close team north korea all around him so he was keeping an eye on them they were keeping their eye on him of course they've got an 85 who's looking to get a medal as well they want their athlete to be Abdul Abdul wants to beat them but he looked unbeatable by anybody except for Jason on a good day He worked up in the snatch and he makes jumps like 60, 100, 20, 40, 60 and then he loaded 170. I have to say, I said before this, I said 170, 200, that was my prediction and I was wrong. I undershot, which is crazy. 170 kilos for two singles. And they both look good. If anything, the second one looked better. That's an opener right there. I mean, that's an opener. From there, 75, 80. I mean, we could see two athletes snatch 80. We could see four athletes break the world record, which currently sits at 173, Jason's. And then in the cleaner jerk, I thought 200 was like a push. Like, we saw 190 last year when he was at 79, maybe go up another 10. But no, I mean, he jumped from 180 to 200, made it look good, and then slipped the old fives on either side. Up, up, up. Yes, like that. One, one. One, and then open your leg. Yes, like that. Thank I'm starting to speak now. We'll I don't get it, I don't get it. you. be I mean 210 kilos, you don't really see that from an 85 right and his biggest weakness from last year other than the emotions spilling out was the elbow. Snatches locked out, clean and jerk 210, locked out, I mean there was, that is a three white back. light lift, that was a 380 kilo total. If you'd have taken, that's an opener snatch so give him another 5 to 10, we're looking at 390. And there's more in the clean and jerk. I mean, he and Jason are going to be, it's going to be one for the ages. It's going to be like one of the best 85 kilo battles ever. And that includes back when we had Ivan Markov, Okulov, Kianoush Rostami, Gabriel Sinkrayn, Tian Tao. This is Abdul versus Jason. It's going to be insane. You can watch it on Weightlifting House TV. You do not want to miss. Let's do this.