Kazakhstan weight-lifters gained eight Olympic spots

Ilya Ilyin. ©REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Kazakhstan weight-lifters won eight spots for 2012 Olympic Games in the World Championship in Paris, Tengrinews.kz reports, referring to the official International Weightlifting Federation's website.Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Maya Maneza and Svetlana Podobedova gained the maximum number of spots for women's team in the French Championship. Men's team also gained four Olympic spots owing to Ilya Ilyin's victory, although the national team's coaches expected the men's team to gain five spots. Russia, China and South Korea became the leaders gaining the maximum number of spots for the London Olympics. Each of them won ten Olympic spots. Kazakhstan weight-lifters became third in the overall ranking of the World Championship following Chinese and Russian athletes.