17-year-old Turkmen weightlifter Didarbek Jumabayev won a silver medal in the clean and jerk and a bronze medal in the total weightlifting at the world junior championships for athletes under 20 years old held in the Egyptian city of Ismailia. The 12th-grade student of the «Olimp» secondary sports school achieved this success in the weight category up to 79 kg, where 17 athletes from 14 countries competed for the title of the strongest.
Didarbek converted four of his six attempts. In the first two sets, he lifted 144 and 148 kg. In the third, a 151-kg barbell was not lifted. As a result, after the first event, our athlete was in sixth place, 3 kg behind the top three.
In the second exercise, the clean and jerk, the Turkmen weightlifter successfully used the first two attempts of 182 kg and 187 kg, but failed to lift 189 kg in the third attempt. As a result, D. Jumabayev won the bronze medal with a total of 335 kg, losing only 1 kg to the silver medalist, Narek Mkrtchyan from Armenia, who won 336 kg (150 + 186). The winner with three gold medals in the snatch, clean and jerk, and the total was Egyptian Hussein Abdelrahman Hamuda – 341 kg (153 + 188).
Didarbek became a World Campionship medalist for the first time in the senior junior category up to 20 years old. Last year, at the youth world championship (U17) in Lima (Peru), he became the vice-world champion in the weight class up to 81 kg with three silver medals in the snatch, clean and jerk and two–man event - 305 kg (137 + 168).
Didarbek Jumabayev started weightlifting in the Garashsyzlyk etrap of Dashoguz velayat. Starting from the 8th grade, he began studying and training at the «Olymp» sports school in the capital. Currently, he is improving his skills under the guidance of the head coach of the junior and men's national teams of Turkmenistan Mansur Rejepov.
Osmanguly Handurdyyev, chief specialist of the Department of Coordination of High-Performance Sports and the Olympic Movement of the State Committee of Turkmenistan for Physical Culture and Sports, Master of Sports in Weightlifting, and International Category Referee, also shares the success of our weightlifter at the 2026 junior world championships.
More than 270 weightlifters from 53 countries compete for medals in the 2026 junior world championships in eight men's and eight women's weight categories.
Nine athletes, including five girls and four boys, represent Turkmenistan at the 2026 junior world championships.
Earlier, in the weight category of up to 53 kg, Oghulshat Amanova took 4th place with a result of 187 kg (84 + 103), losing 1 kg to the bronze medalist, Maria Stratoudaki from Greece, who weighed 188 kg (86 + 102). Her compatriot Shabnam Kerimbayeva, in the same weight category, finished eighth among 15 competitors, with a total of 181 kg (80 + 101). In the category up to 63 kg (13 participants), Medine Amanova did not record any qualifying attempts.
