• Opening ceremonies for the 4-day event scheduled at 7 p.m. at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Olympic Complex
• 170 countries are represented in the competition, a qualification tournament for the Paris 2024 Olympics

Khaled Al-Arafah

RIYADH: Some 2,500 athletes representing more than 170 countries from around the world, including Japan, are participating in the World Senior Weightlifting Championship, which opens Sunday in Riyadh.

Mohammed Jaloud, president of the International Weightlifting Federation and the heads of the participating national federations, will lead the opening ceremonies for the 14-day sporting event at 7 p.m., at the Ministry of Sports Hall of the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Olympic Complex in the Saudi capital.

The competition, which will run until September 17, is a qualifying tournament for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The opening ceremony, which will last for 40 minutes, is expected to include artistic performances by international teams, national heritage segments, folklore performances, visual and acrobatic shows, to be broadcast on Saudi sports channels and a number of global channels. 

The “Zurcaroh” Austrian acrobatic team, who won second place in the famous American talents program “America’s Got Talent”, will present an artistic performance for the first time in the history of the World Weightlifting Championships, with more than 43 artists from Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, and Switzerland participating. The group is headed by Petterssonhora, a Brazilian artist and choreographer with over 25 years of experience.

Organizers said they have started prepararing for the event over a year ago after Riyadh was announced as host city. Nine hotels have been selected for the accommodation of participating teams.

Twenty buses are to operate 16 hours a day for the transportation of athletes from their accommodations to the training and competition hall, where more than 70 training platforms have been provided for athletes.

Participating teams started arriving in Riyadh last week, with Kyrgyzstan as the earliest bird, followed by the Thai and Canadian teams.