Armenia’s top heavyweights went lift-for-lift at the 2025 European Weightlifting Championships. For longtime competitor Simon Martirosyan, it was a passing of the torch; for a resurgent Garik Karapetyan, it was the comeback meet every athlete dreams of.
With the Paris Olympics in the rearview and new men’s bodyweight categories on the horizon, the Men’s 109-kilogram event in Chisinau, Moldova on Apr. 20 signaled a new chapter for one of Europe’s winningest teams.
- By the Numbers: At the last two European Weightlifting Championships, team Armenia brought home more medals than any other participating country.
Here’s what we saw during the explosive finale of the Men’s 109-kilogram, and what it means for Karapetyan and Martirosyan alike.
Karapetyan vs. Martirosyan | 2025 European Weightlifting Championships
The gold and silver medals were already spoken for when the Men’s 109-kilogram athletes were introduced. Karapetyan and Martirosyan had both put in a whopping 410-kilogram entry total, a full 15 kilograms ahead of the rest of the field.
- One Big Thing: Azerbaijan's silver medalist from last year's World Weightlifting Championships, Dadas Dadashbayli, had entered at 400 but was not seen in Chisinau.
We assumed Martirosyan would be in the driver’s seat against his younger teammate. Karapetyan had injured his shoulder trying to snatch 188 kilograms last December; veteran Martirosyan still holds the total world record at 435 kilograms, which he’d set in 2018.
In reality, it was the other way around, especially in the clean & jerk portion — a lift Martirosyan has historically excelled at, while long arms and relatively poor leg strength had hamstrung Karapetyan throughout his Junior career.
Here’s how they did on the day:
Karapetyan vs. Martirosyan
Neither athlete was operating at full power in the snatches. Martirosyan looked unstable, opening fairly light considering he boasts an international best of 195 kilograms from the 109-kilo event at Tokyo 2020.
Garik Karapetyan, Snatch: 180x, 180, 185
Simon Martirosyan, Snatch: 176x, 181x, 181
Karapetyan, meanwhile, failed to commit to his opener altogether but found his wits as the competition progressed and entered the clean & jerks looking confident and controlled.
Garik Karapetyan, Clean & Jerk: 212, 220, 226
Simon Martirosyan, Clean & Jerk: 213, 225x, 225
A five-kilogram margin of victory (411 to Martirosyan’s 406) for Karapetyan rendered a verdict that’s impossible to ignore, especially considering that the two teammates had never gone head-to-head in an international setting before.
Team Armenia: Stronger Than Ever?
Simon had attempted to qualify for the Paris Olympics as a super-heavyweight, but lost out to a resonant and fast-improving Varazdat Lalayan. Garik made it to Paris as a 102 and finished in fourth place.
More important still was Karapetyan’s six-kilogram personal record in the jerk in Chisinau — a massive leap from just last November when he made 220 at the European U23 Championships.
"The extra weight hurt my performance more than it helped," Simon told us of his foray into the super-heavyweights in the training hall the day before he and Garik went at it.
Cutting back down, though, seems to have taken a toll on Martirosyan as he finds himself pincered between two younger, rapidly improving teammates.
- Big Things Coming: Lalayan is expected to run away with three gold medals in the Men's +109-kilogram event on Apr. 21 in a distinctly Lasha Talakhadze-less session. In Paris, Lalayan trailed the G.O.A.T. from Georgia by only three kilos.
Martirosyan is by no means an old dog incapable of new tricks. At 28, he carries an international resume stretching back over a decade to 2012 and was competing against all-timers like Ilya Ilyin and Ruslan Nurudinov at just 17 years old.
But with another weight class shuffle coming down the pipe in June (the second reorganization in less than a decade) and Karapetyan definitively beating him lift-for-lift, Simon is in a bind. He hasn’t signaled any intent to retire from weightlifting, but for now, it’s Garik’s party in the heavyweight division.
Catch Lalayan on stage in the final session of the 2025 European Weightlifting Championships live on Weightlifting House TV.
