Grozdev made five straight lifts in totalling 278 kilograms to win the men’s 62kg and twice broke the European Youth - 17 and under - snatch record in doing so, with lifts of 125kg and 126kg.

There was a landmark medal, too, for Norway’s Rebekka Jacobsen, who took silver for clean and jerk in the women’s 53kg. 

It was Norway’s first continental junior medal for 37 years.

"We have won a few senior medals, but our last European junior medal was in the super-heavyweights in 1979," said Tryggve Duun, President of the Norwegian Federation.

"This is a very good performance by Rebekka. 

"We have other good young lifters coming through and it’s such good news for the future. 

"We hope we can continue like this."

Coach Jostein Froyd said: "We waited a long time, and now we have other medal chances this week. 

"Weightlifting is a growing sport in Norway."

Jacobsen, in her last year as a junior, made all her clean and jerk attempts and finished fourth overall. 

It might have been so much better because all three nations whose totals were higher than hers, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, are lucky to be here in Israel. 

They will all be banned from international weightlifting for a year as they had three or more positives in the recent retests of Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games samples.

The bans could have started weeks ago but the process of  "closing" those cases has taken so long they will not start until early next year.

The hugely impressive Russian Kristina Novitskaia made all six lifts to win overall gold in the women’s 53kg by the huge margin of 19kg from Krystina Makutsevich of Belarus. 

Kamila Konotop, the 15-year-old Ukrainian who was a top-six finisher in the World Youth and World Junior Championships, took overall bronze.

There was an encouraging debut from Fraer Morrow, of Britain. In her first international contest.

Morrow, 18, who took up weightlifting only a year ago after being spotted by a GB coach at a Crossfit competition, finished seventh.

"I wasn’t really happy with that, though,” she said. 

"I need to improve by a few kilos to make the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard."

Romania’s Monica Csengeri made five good lifts to take gold in the first medal event of the Championships, the women’s 48kg. 

Favourite Csengeri, a multiple medallist in age-group contests, won bronze in the senior European Championships in Forde in Norway in April.

Csengeri’s only failure was her last attempt. 

That would have cost her gold had Iana Mokhina, of Russia, been successful with her final clean and jerk at 97kg, but it was beyond her and she had to settle for second place, seven kilograms adrift. 

Turkey’s Gamze Karakol was third.

Nadezhda Nguen, of Bulgaria, also made five good lifts but failed with her last attempt, which would have been enough for bronze. 

Nguen, 16, is one of the 11 lifters who tested positive at a Bulgaria training camp in March, 2015. 

She was banned for nine months and returned this year to compete at senior, youth and junior level in Continental Championships.

In the first men’s event, at 56kg, Dmytro Voronovskyi, of Ukraine, was five kilograms behind Azerbaijan’s Kanan Khalilov after the snatch but won the overall gold easily. 

Khalilov failed with two of his clean and jerk attempts and dropped back to third place.

Voronovskyi finished on 233kg, with Turkey’s Isa Gungor second and Khalilov third. 

There was a clean and jerk silver for the German Leon Schedler, while Giorgi Dokvadze, of Georgia, made six good lifts but had only a clean and jerk bronze to show for it.

Germany had a second medal when Jon Luke Mau took a clean and jerk bronze in the 62kg. 

The silver medal on total went to Ferdi Hardal - Turkey’s third overall medal of the day - and the bronze to Georgia’s Goderdz Berdelidze.

Frantisek Polak of the Czech Republic, who was 15 in July, was the youngest lifter to post a total on the day, in the 56kg but at least this time his rivals were only a few months or years older. 

Back in April Polak, then 14, was the youngest competitor in the senior European Championships in Norway, when the man at the other end of the age range, Hungary’s Noel Nagy, was 32 years older than him.