Ozkan won the women’s lightest category, 48kg, for the second year in succession. The first men’s event, the 56kg, was won by the Italian favourite, Mirco Scarantino, who had been a bronze medallist last year.
Ozkan did not need to take her sixth and final lift when Genny Pagliaro, of Italy, failed with her last attempt.
“Now I am targeting the Olympics,” said Ozkan, 28, who was a silver medallist at the Beijing 2008 Games. “I will be training especially hard for Rio.”
As a girl, Ozkan started in judo, and when she was 12 she tried weightlifting. “My coach told me I was so strong I should stay with it,” she said. She was inspired by the two great heroes of Turkish weightlifting, multiple champions Naim Suleymanoglu and Halil Mutlu.
Pagliaro finished second overall, with the Romanian Monica Suneta Csengeri third.
Scarantino’s total of 264kg was the same as the Spanish silver medallist Josue Brachi Garcia, but the Italian weighed in lighter and won on body weight. Ilie-Constantin Ciotoiu, of Romania, was a distant third, 17kg behind.
Each lifter competes in the snatch and clean and jerk with the total from each discipline aggregated to decide the winner of the overall title. Individual medals are also awarded for each discipline.
(Editing by Toby Davis)
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