Strasbourg - The women's 69-kg class at the European Weightlifting Championships featured the (former) junior stars, Russian lifters Oxana Slivenko, who holds the junior and senior world record in the snatch at 123 kg, and Zarema Kasaeva, who holds the junior and senior world records in the clean and jerk at 157 kg.

We heard that she hurt her hand and was given a break from training, but the bottom line was that Kasaeva (who is still a junior) didn't look like the same person we're used to seeing in the past, making only one snatch, 100 kg, and two clean and jerks, 125 and 128 kg, before deadlifting 136 kg. Slivenko, who is now a senior, might not have been in top form, but she appeared to just be doing enough to win, which she did very easily via 112/145, good for three gold medals. Nazik Avdalyan (Armenia) was second, via 105/136, edging her teammate Natalya Davydova (who did 109/132) on bodyweight.