2015 world silver medalist weightlifter Mart Seim fell ill with the coronavirus earlier this year and was forced to miss the final competition of the qualifying process. Seim cannot therefore take part in the upcoming Tokyo Summer Olympics in July but is looking ahead to the world championships in fall.
Seim's father and trainer Alar Seim said the weightlifter was just not able to participate in enough competitions. "Initially, the qualification for the Olympics saw three six-month periods, where we had to compete twice in each, which would have left us four out of six competitions to qualify. A couple of days ago, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) made a decision, where the three periods no longer hold importance and four competitions are enough - four results will still be used for qualification," the trainer said.