The bar settled overhead at 114 kilograms and Nicoleta Cojocaru held it. With that clean and jerk, the 16-year-old from Moldova closed the women's 58kg at the IWF World Youth Championships in Cali on 8 July 2026 with a second youth world record and a full set of her own.
A final lift that completed the set
Cojocaru opened her clean and jerks at 105 kilograms, moved to 109, then called for 114. Her final lift gave her a full set of world records. The total of 202 kilograms stood as a youth world record, and the 114 as another. Cojocaru, 16, made five from six and improved her best total by 5kg on 88-114-202. The one miss came early, in the snatch, where she made 85 and 88 before failing at 92. She had set the youths' snatch world record in Ismailia and would have bettered it but for failing on 92kg in Cali.
The result was decided long before the last attempt. Cojocaru finished 12kg clear of silver medallist Ilayda Etugrul from Turkiye. Etugrul made 85-105-190 and Mohamed 86-103-189. Yasmine Mohamed of Egypt took third on total; Emily Kuster from Brazil took clean and jerk bronze on 105. The contest, in truth, was between Cojocaru and the record book.
The step up from Ismailia
That margin marks how far she has travelled in weeks rather than years. Two months earlier, at the World Junior Championships in Ismailia, Cojocaru had been part of a closer field. Mohamed had finished fifth, one kilo and one place ahead of Cojocaru at the World Juniors in Ismailia, Egypt in May. In Cali the order reversed and widened. This time she failed with her final two clean and jerks and was 13kg behind the Moldovan.
Ismailia had already given Cojocaru the youth snatch world record. Cali gave her the other two. The improvement was not only in the standings but in the numbers she now owns: a five-kilogram gain on her best total, achieved on the biggest youth stage, against a stronger field. On a good day for Europe, Nicoleta Cojocaru claimed two world records in winning the women's 58kg by a wide margin.
The pattern is consistent. Where the snatch had been her calling card in Egypt, in Colombia it was the clean and jerk that carried her, three good lifts from three, each one heavier than any youth had managed before. The snatch, for once, was the department that let a record slip. There will be other days for 92 kilograms.
She is 16, and the record board in her weight class now reads only her name.
