Burger sets new national Weightlifting record in Saudi Arabia

The competition got underway in the city of Riyadh early last week as part of what Burger previously described as a challenging task to qualifying for Paris next year, having suffered some bumps and bruises along the journey so far. 

But on Wednesday he celebrated a milestone with his 175kg in the clean and jerk beating his own SA record. 

The Mossel Bay-born athlete was taking part in his sixth consecutive World Championships and was still the best in his country in the 102kg division, arriving in Saudi Arabia with a 173kg personal best.

Burger finished sixth in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year. 

In his interview with SABC Sport prior to flying out to the competition, Burger had spoken about the challenging qualifying criteria for the Olympic Games. 

“There’s always a lot to be done, especially with the new system that changed from the previous Olympics [2021 in Tokyo]. You literally just need one massive good event and you are there,” he said then.

Saudi Arabia might just be what the doctor ordered before he is off to the next qualification event before the end of the year to push his ranking up. 

In a social media post several hours ago, while still in Riyadh, the 32-year-old thanked his parents and girlfriend Anneke Spies, who also broke the women's national record at the same event. 

“So many shout outs and thank yous [sic] that I can and should send out that’s almost too much to cover in one post. The support, motivation and encouragement that I’ve received from everyone back home and even some abroad is phenomenal and I can only say thank you to all who followed by journey thus far,” Burger wrote.