David Goldstrom, Creative Director of London-based Television in Europe, told IronMind® that the Thor Cup - an international weightlifting tournament with a unique format - is definitely on.

Goldstrom has been involved with television coverage of international weightlifting since 1995, when he covered the World Championships in Guangzhou, China and next week he will continue his work of providing television coverage of the European Weightlifting Championships.

Goldstrom said that this tournament is a way to give more people a glimpse of weightlifting, a sport that many only see during the summer Olympics, and he feels this particular format is very fan friendly.

Five nations - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden - will each have a three-man team and the total body weight for the team cannot exceed 280 kg, with any combination of body weights being permissible. Thus, regardless of their exact weights, this gives each team a "lightweight," a "middleweight" and a "heavyweight" competitor.

Using a round system, the five lightest men from each team complete three attempts in the snatch. The five middleweights run through their snatches in the same way, followed by the five heavyweights. After all the snatches, the snatch total for each team is posted, which determines the ranking. The same system is then used for the clean and jerks, and the final total (snatch plus clean and jerk) for each team determines the overall positions.

Set for the Winter Garden Performance Arena of the Smaralind Mall in Reykjavik on May 13 at 3:30, this two-hour tournament will be broadcast live.

"We need to be doing new things to popularize weightlifting," Goldstrom said, "and rooting for their national team is a natural way to get people involved. Plus, these five teams are pretty evenly matched, and sport is at its best when the outcome is unpredictable, so this is perfect."