American weightlifter Hampton Morris won the gold medal in the 61kg class at the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) Junior World Championships. The competition runs from May 2-May 20th and is held in Heraklion, Greece. Morris landed at the top of the podium after setting a new world record in the clean & jerk. Let’s look at Hampton Morris’ incredible day below.
Hampton Morris Sets New Records At The 2022 IWF Junior World Championships
Hampton Morris proved himself once again as one of the top weightlifters in the world. Morris managed to win with a 116kg (255.7lb) snatch and a 160kg (352.7lb) clean & jerk.
His clean & jerk of 160kg is a new IWF Junior World Record and Senior American Record in the 61kg class. This lift beat his previous best clean & jerk of 156kg and edged out Adkhamjon Ergashev’s Junior World Record of 159kg.
The top three finishers in the 61kg class posted the following lifts, listed as snatch/clean & jerk and overall total:
- Winner: Hampton Morris 🇺🇸 – (116kg | 160kg) 276kg Total
- Second: Kahriman Kaan 🇹🇷 – (126kg | 143kg ) 269kg Total
- Third: Daniel Stiven Caicedo Solis 🇨🇴 – (121kg 146kg) 267kg Total
Morris won the gold medal even though his snatch of 116kg didn’t match up to the other top lifters. If he’s able to improve his snatch, he will be hard to beat.
Watch Hampton Morris' record-setting clean & jerk below:
WHO IS HAMPTON MORRIS?
Hampton Morris is an American weightlifter who holds several accolades, including 10 Pan-American, 17 American, and 3 World records. With his recent performance, he now boasts a 2022 Junior World Championship and 2021 Pan-American and Youth World Championship.
Morris started his journey in weightlifting at the age of 10, then entered his first competition at 12 and within five years became a World record holder. Over the past few years, Morris seems unstoppable as he’s won every IWF event he’s competed in since 2019.
Even though we’re still two years away from the 2024 Paris Games, we’re sure that Morris has his sights set on winning an Olympic medal. It will be interesting to see if he will be able to stay at the 61kg weight class by that time as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reduced the number of spots in weightlifting and changed up the weight classes.
There's one thing we know for sure, Morris will be a force in the weightlifting community for some time to come as he’s only 18 years old and has already accomplished so much.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Hampton Morris serves as a bright light for Team USA weightlifting. He's an athlete with the determination, dedication, and skill set to help level up America’s standing in the competitive landscape of Olympic weightlifting.
SET FOR SET congratulates Hampton on this tremendous win; he’s nowhere near done yet, so stay tapped in!
Kiel DiGiovanni
Author