Andranik Karapetyan won the battle of the Armenians ©Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians tuned in to the European Weightlifting Championships, broadcast live on state television from Forde, Norway, to watch two of their country’s Olympic medal hopefuls go head-to-head.

The younger of the two, 20-year-old Andranik Karapetyan, had by far the better of it in the men’s 77kg final.

He won by 15kg from his older rival Tigran Martirosyan, who is one of his nation’s most popular sportsmen.

Romania’s Dumitru Captari won the bronze from the B Group – the second medallist in successive days from the supposed second rank of lifters.

Captari finished third in the snatch, clean & jerk and overall behind the Armenians, and lifted 28kg more than compatriot Razvan Martin, who started in the A Group.

It was Romania’s fifth medal in eight events to date.

Albania’s Erkand Qerimaj failed to register after failing with all three snatch attempts.

With Briken Calja having suffered a similar fate in the 69kg, when he “bombed out” in the clean & jerk, it meant no finish and no Olympic qualifying points for Albania’s top two hopes in Forde.

In the women’s medal event, at 63kg, Russia had a one-two finish and claimed their first gold medal of the week.

Natalia Khlestkina, who like Karapetyan served a two-year doping ban early in her career, won from Diana Akhmetova.

Tigran Martirosyan had to settle for silver
Tigran Martirosyan had to settle for silver ©Getty Images

Italy’s Giorgia Bordignon made her final clean & jerk attempt to take bronze, pushing Britain’s Zoe Smith into fourth place.

With Emily Godley finishing sixth, Britain made a decent haul of Olympic qualifying points.

Martirosyan, 28, became Armenia’s youngest Olympic medallist when he won a bronze at Beijing in 2008.

He was also his nation’s first weightlifting world champion, in 2010, and has won three European titles.

He could not raise a serious challenge to Karapetyan, finishing a distant second in the snatch, and 5kg behind in the clean & jerk, in which he made only one good lift.

Karapetyan went for a huge 174kg with his third snatch attempt, only 2kg short of the world record, but he failed.

Karapetyan, who tested positive aged 17 and returned to action just over a year ago, will be a medal contender in Rio on this form.

Varvara Hayrapetyan, an official from the Armenia National Olympic Committee who is with the team in Forde, estimated that half a million Armenians – nearly one fifth of the population - would have been watching live on state television back home.