Ymer Pampuri, silver medalist at the European Championships in Constanta in 1972!

From May 13 to 21, 1972, the 51st European Weightlifting Championship was held in Constanta, Romania.

157 athletes from 27 European countries participated in this championship, teams including our representative consisting of: Kalleshi; Teli; Pampuri; Taci; Rapi; Qiraxhiu; Belinova.

The last athlete to compete from the Albanian team was Asim Belinova, who in the 82.5 kg weight category took 19th place among 24 competitors, collecting 400kg (125-120-155kg). In the weight up to 75 kg. Maksim Rapi broke the national record in the clean and jerk from 150.5kg to 142 kg.

Our participation in this important event was crowned with a great success: a silver medal in “Press Style” by Ymer Pampuri in the weight category up to 60kg. Pampuri lifted 125, taking second place with 1kg more than the national record, which was also held by him. The gold medal was won by the Polish weightlifter Henrik Trebicki also with 125kg, only he benefited from the smaller body weight. The Soviet Dito Shanitze won the bronze medal.

The year 1972, as is known, will be the year of success for the Albanian weightlifter Pampuri, whose achievements are neither unexpected nor accidental, starting from the intensive training of this prominent athlete, who raised his results in “Press Style”, to the levels of the best in Europe and correctly assessing his capabilities through comparisons with others.

Ymer Pampuri first caught the eye in 1966, when he broke the national record in the “Press Style” with 90.5kg, while participating in an event in Ganefo. A year later, in 1967, he improved the record to 117.5kg, which means 27kg more, showing signs of high results at the international level. Pampuri would not stop there, in 1968 he would further improve the record to 122.5kg.

Meanwhile, during this athlete’s preparations before the 1972 European Championship, Pampuri raised his result to a high world rank, 123kg on March 12, 124kg on April 29 and 125kg at the European Championship on May 15 in Constance.

Ymer Pampuri was convinced of one of the three places of honor in these finals, so he did not go to Romania just to compete. He knew that his results rank him among the best in the world, and for this, this comparison is enough if we look at the results of his 60kg competition in “Press Style” at the 1971 world championship, in Lima, Peru (September 15-26). The first two places had reached 122.5kg, while the third and fourth – 120kg, below the fifth and sixth 117.5kg!

It should be noted that on the podium of the European Championships in Constanta, were the best weightlifters in the world, since Europeans have the upper hand in this sport.

To know the importance of the success of the Albanian weightlifter, immediately after the competition, the news agency “AFP”, in the commentary of the day, among other things, reserved these lines: “The competition began with strong rivalry after the Albanian Pampuri made a short but excellent appearance in “press style”, winning the silver medal”.

This comment, which is correct, also needs an explanation; it was truly excellent since our Pampuri participated for the first time in a European event, where the possibilities of Albanian weightlifters had never been considered by the participants. But, at the same time, his appearance was short, since, for those who attended the competition, our athlete could not compete in the other two styles with results of the same level that was seen in the “press style”.

Ymer Pampuri was working at the time in the machine – shop, who was welcomed with great enthusiasm upon his return to Albania, not only by his work colleagues but also by the entire Albanian fan base.

This high result served as a great incentive for even better preparation not only of other weightlifters but for all our athletes. The element, Albania of sports at that time, had, even capable and with great passion. It was up to the trainers and staff to do a more studied, more scientific work, with even higher perspectives in this sport as well as in that of shooting, to honor the name of Albania in the international arena.

By Pjerin Bj.
New York, November 27, 2024
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Sports Vision plus+/ Champions Hour in activity since 2013
Reference: Personal collection of “Sporti Popullor” Newpaper of 1972.

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