IronMind Big Lift Series: Ronny Weller 260-kg Clean and Jerk

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It was a titanic battle in the making in the supers at the 1998 European Weightlifting Championships (Riesa, Germany), where Ronny Weller, on his home turf, was taking on the Russian giant Andrei Chemerkin. Word was that Chemerkin wasn’t in top shape, and Weller, who excels in the snatch, did just that, with a world record 205.5 kg to Chemerkin’s 195. Knowing he had to do well in the clean and jerks to maintain his lead, Weller opened with a conservative 245, and Chemerkin made his 250, but he didn’t maul it—in fact he had to work for it, maybe waiting to see what Weller would do and then hit a homer. Weller looked better at his next attempt, 255 kg, and then called for 260 kg. As Randall Strossen reported at the time, “I never expected to see Weller hit 260 in Riesa, but that’s just exactly what he did—he had to work a little to hold the jerk but, hey, we’re talking 260 kg overhead, and the lift never looked in doubt.” Weller’s total was a world record 465 kg and Chemerkin never came out for the next round. Watch here how Weller capped off his celebration with a trademark move—and who was in the crowd to see his performance? No less than Russian weightlifting triumvirate Leonid Taranenko, Anatoly Pisarenko, and Alexander Kurlovich.