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<p>The marathon that is the qualifying process for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo is still in the early stages, but Beaufort’s CJ Cummings has put himself in excellent position to see his dream become a reality.</p>
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<p>After his performance at the IWF Youth World Championships earlier this month in Fiji, Cummings climbed to the top of the IWF’s qualification rankings — not just for the 73kg weight class, but across all weight classes.</p>
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<p>Cummings’ absolute ranking score of 3016.5507 points gives him a cushion of more than 208 points over the No. 2 lifter on the list —&nbsp;Akbar Djuraev of Uzbekistan —roughly equivalent to the gap between second place and seventh.</p>
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<p>Cummings’ nearest competitor in the 73kg weight class is China’s Zhiyong Shi, who is ranked ninth. Four other 73kg lifters are ranked in the top 25 and another seven are ranked from 26th through 36th.</p>
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<p>“With over a year to go before the Olympics and many more qualifying competitions to come, it means that CJ is in a good place at present,” said Team Beaufort coach Ray Jones. “When you look at the different weight classes, CJ‘s is the most competitive and we would not want it any other way. Picture it as a marathon — there is still a lot more race till the finish line.”</p>
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<p>Cummings’ next competition is the Junior Pan American Championships later this month in Havana, Cuba.</p>
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