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Fri, Mar

Weightlifter Arm Suffers Permanent Damage

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The European Weightlifting Championships is an annual event organized by the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF) was in the media space for the wrong reasons in the early hours of today 13 April 2019 after a 31-year-old Weightlifter Gaelle Nayo Ketchanke suffered multiple breaks of her arm and a dislocated elbow during the tournament.

The 31-year-old silver-medallist French weightlifter was attempting to beat a personal record by lifting a 110kg in the women’s 76kg category at the event in Batumi, Georgia where she sustained the injury. It was Nayo Ketchanke third and final attempt before disaster struck.

Nayo Ketchanke had been able to lift the bar over the back of her head and was preparing to spring the bar to complete the lift when her arm snapped at the elbow, bending the arm back around on itself as she tried to release the bar safely behind her body before the bar collapsed onto her torso as she fell forward and was caught between the floor and the bar. She was then transported immediately to a hospital nearby.

However, she still won the bronze medal in Georgia for completing her 103kg opener. But this injury has cast doubt if she can participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

After coming out of the operating room, Ketchanke took to Instagram and wrote

"I'm coming out of these European Championships not in the best of ways, with a 107kg wrenching elbow injury after winning the bronze medal at 103kg,” she wrote.

"I received a lot of support messages that made me feel good and we are waiting for my return to France to do further tests.

"I want to thank the medical and technical staff of the Federation who responded very quickly and who is by my side.

“My coaches and my colleagues from the France team. I will come back to you for the news."

 

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