Varazdat Lalayan: I can't say what motivation Lasha Talakhadze's participation would’ve given me on competition stage

By Lusine Shahbazyan

I can't say what motivation Lasha Talakhadze's participation would have give me on the competition stage. I was ready to fight. I did what I could, I won. Varazdat Lalayan, newly crowned European weightlifting champion, world silver medalist, and Armenia’s leader in the +109kg weight category, told this to reporters.

Lalayan, who became European champion, returned to home to Armenia from the Bulgarian capital of Sofia last night, together with the rest of the Armenian national weightlifting team.

Lalayan on Tuesday was crowned European champion for the first time in his professional weightlifting career.

"I am very happy to win a gold medal. I thank everyone for the congratulations. I can't say what motivation Lasha Talakhadze's participation would have given me on the competition stage. I was ready to fight. I did what I could, I won.

The kilograms I lifted were not my maximum. There was little time to prepare. I was not in 100 percent shape in Sofia—and it was not just me. All of us were not in the best shape. The medal is there, now we have to go step by step to the Olympic Games.

I do not promise anything in Paris 2024. To be able to win, you have to work hard, train, which I am doing, everything else will happen by God's will," said Lalayan.

Varazdat Lalayan was declared the champion of the +109kg weight category by lifting a total weight of 455kg (205+250) on the last day competition at the 2024 European Weightlifting Championships held in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, between February 12 and 20.

But the world leader in this weight category, Lasha Talakhadze (Georgia), did not participate in the European Championships due to injury. The other representative of Armenia in this weight category, Simon Martirosyan, became a silver medalist by lifting a total weight of 437kg (190+247).

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