February 21, 2020 - 13:49 AMT
Armenian athlete a runner-up in IWF Lifter of the Year competition

Armenian Simon Martirosyan is the runner-up in the International Weightlifting Federation's Best Male Lifter competition in 2019, the IWF said in a statement.

Martirosyan set a new world record and snatched gold in the 109kg category of the World Weightlifting Championships in Thailand in September 2019.

Just like in 2017 and 2018, Georgia's Lasha Talakhadze became the Lifter of the Year, while the Best Woman Lifter's title went to Katherine Nye (U.S.).

More than 50 thousand, precisely 50,514, ballots were cast online on the IWF website for the five male and five female pre-selected lifters, each of them world champions in 2019.