Saelem Nayef Badr won two gold medals at the World Weightlifting Championships on November 25, awarding Qatar its first ever distinction in the sport.

Badr, who was born in Bulgaria, lifted 205 kgs in the clean-and- jerk and totaled 370 kgs for the two gold medals in the men's 77- kg category.

Badr is one of eight Bulgarian weightlifters recently given Qatari passports and Arabic names, most of them were second-team athletes, who had trouble earning a place in competition for Bulgaria, a country which has no shortage of top-level lifters.

Under a deal reached earlier this year, those strongmen can no longer compete for Bulgaria but still train there under their old coach Ivan Abadjiev with his assistant Zlatan Ivanov appointed as the Qatari national team coach.

Greece's Victor Mitrou won two silver medals in jerk and two- lift total due to body weight.

The snath silver went to Khachatur Kyapakaktsyan of Armenia who set a new world record by lifting 170.5 kgs, but lost Razvan Ilie of Romania for the gold medal as Ilie conquered 170 kgs first.