Kazakhstan's Chinshanlo named Lifter of the Year 2012

Kazakhstan's London Olympics weightlifting champion Zulfiya Chinshanlo was named the Lifter of the Year 2012 among the women, Vesti.kz reports. Chinshanlo got the award based the voting of over 1300 voters on the International Weightlifting Federation website. “I am glad to get this award and it came a bit unexpectedly,” Chinshanlo said. “I will be officially awarded the trophy shortly and I would like to thank everybody who voted for me.” The top three women weightlifters are separated by only a few points. It is considered the closest voting ever by the International Weightlifting Federation. All the women in the top three represent Kazakhstan: Zulfiya Chinshanlo emerged as the winner with her fellow countrywomen Maiya Maneza and Svetlana Podobedova following closely. Among the men, Kazakhstan’s Ilya Ilyin was close to winning the award as some point, but in the end Iranian Behdad Salimikordasiabi was elected as the Best Lifter and by a large margin. Ilya Ilyin of Kazakhstan was ranked second and Polish Adrian Zielinski became the third best of 2012.