Kamila Konotop from Ukraine broke all three of her own continental senior records at 59 kilograms despite declining her final attempt in both snatch and clean and jerk.

In making 107-130-237, 22-year-old Konotop posted a bigger total than every other woman in both age groups apart from the two super-heavyweight winners, Tuana Suren from Turkey and Sarah Fischer from Austria, who weighed 35kg and 37kg more.

Garik Karapetyan from Armenia was the star performer in the Junior Championships, setting a junior world record of 181kg in the snatch on his way to victory at 102kg and outperforming all the 109kg and super-heavyweight lifters.

Karapetyan, fourth in the Paris rankings, already holds the clean and jerk record and becomes only the second European man, after Karlos Nasar, to hold more than one current junior world record - alongside six Asians who have achieved the feat.

He declined his final clean and jerk in making 181-205-386, which was 6kg lower than his best effort in Olympic qualifying. This dual age-group Championships was not a qualifier.

Arguably the most significant team performance came from Georgia’s junior women, who numbered only three.

All of them won, and between them they claimed eight gold medals.

"This is a new chapter in our history," said the Georgian Weightlifting Federation's general secretary Ruska Muradashvili.

While its men, led by multiple world record holder Lasha Talakhadze in the super-heavyweights, have excelled in recent years, Georgia’s women have barely featured in the medals tables.

Their only notable successes have come from Anastasiia Hotfrid, who lifted for Ukraine before she married and switched to Georgia.

A serious attempt to develop women’s weightlifting began in 2016 and the results are now evident.

There were no women from Georgia in the Under-23s compared with 10 men, but three younger lifters won more gold medals than the men’s junior team of 10 athletes, who claimed seven.

Georgia’s female winners were Mariam Maisuradze at 49kg on 74-88-162, Natia Gadelia at 81kg on 96-123-219 and Mariam Murgvliani at 87kg on 102-127-229.

Kakhi Kakhiashvili, the triple Olympic champion who is President of the Georgian Weightlifting Federation, said, "Our proactive approach led to this cascade of female athletes on the podium.

"It is fair to call the achievements in Bucharest historic - only three athletes and all of them champions.

"For the first time Georgia took first place in the team medals rankings for women.

"As of today there are a few girls in Georgia training in weightlifting, but in future we hope to be represented by several at the Olympic Games."

It was also a very successful Championships for the male side of the Asanidze family.

The 20-year-old 81kg junior winner Saba Asanidze, who totalled 327kg, and his elder brother Kakhi, second to Furkan Ozbek in the Under-23s at 73kg, were both ranked fourth in their respective individual points lists.

Their sisters Mariam and Sali are not weightlifters but perhaps their father Giorgi should persuade them otherwise.

Giorgi Asanidze is the national head coach who led Georgia to its best ever all-round performance at these Championships.

Two other Georgian brothers claimed medals: Zaza Lomtadze, 22, won at 109kg in the Under-23s with a total of 371kg, and 19-year-old Tornike Lomtadze took the junior 96kg clean and jerk silver behind team-mate Gervasi Tabagari, who won on total.

Judging by their form this year, both Karapetyan, 20, and Konotop would be leading medal contenders in Paris but Konotop faces exclusion because of doping violations by team-mates.

Ukraine has had three athletes test positive since October. The Paris qualifying rules state that "all quota places shall be withdrawn" from any National Federation with three or more doping violations during the qualifying period that lead to the standard four-year suspension.

Konotop, who has improved her best total by 30kg since May last year, is second in the 59kg rankings behind Luo Shifang from China.

Nina Sterckx from Belgium, who was 2kg behind Konotop at last year's senior continental championships when both women lifted at 55kg, was second in Bucharest and third in the individual rankings on 93-120-213.

Konotop's numbers in Bucharest were better across the board than her winning performance in the seniors in Armenia in April, and her total was within 1kg of Luo’s winning effort at the Asian Championships in Korea in May.

Konotop’s score on the all-weights Robi points system was 871, way ahead of all other male and female lifters in both age groups in Bucharest.

Marin Robu from Moldova was top performer in the men’s Under-23s, scoring 819 Robi points despite declining one of his attempts at 89kg. He won on 170-203-373, which was 9kg more than his best total in Paris qualifying and would have put him in eighth place if this was a qualifier.

One other senior continental record was set in Bucharest, by the host nation’s Mihaela Cambei at 49kg in the Under-23s.

The 20-year-old took the European snatch record in winning with 90-105-195, which put her second behind Konotop in the individual list.

Romania had the top female performer in the Junior Championships, the 55kg winner Andreea Cotruta.

The teenager, who won the senior European title in April, made 88-110-198 ahead of the impressive 17-year-old Italian Celine Delia on 84-110-194.

Cotruta, 19, scored 635 Robi points to finish top of the individual rankings, with Delia third. 

The Ukrainians who finished 1-2 in the junior 59kg, Svitlana Samuliak on 215kg and Olha Ivzhenko on 204kg, were second and fourth on Robi points.

Karapetyan led the men’s junior rankings by a wide margin on 805 points ahead of the 102kg silver medallist Gurami Vekua from Georgia, who totalled 359kg. 

Romania’s Tiberiu Donose was third after winning at 73kg with 316kg.

Other notable performers included 15-year-old Enkileda Carja from Albania, who won the European Youth title last month and has since been given more support by her National Federation.

Carja, a bronze medallist when Albania hosted the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Youth Championships in March, set a continental Under-15 clean and jerk record when she finished sixth from the 59kg B Group on 85-102-187.

Super-heavyweight Suren, 17, broke all three European youth records on 106-133-239, helping Turkey to a haul of 16 gold medals in the men's and women's junior events.

Other junior teams who won multiple gold medals were Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Armenia and, despite having smaller teams, Moldova.

The strongest Under-23 teams were Romania and Ukraine in the women, and Armenia, Georgia and Moldova in the men.