Turkey and Georgia had the last two winners of the Championships here, and Turkey finished top of the medals table with seven gold, five silver and four bronze.

Etta Love’s second-place finish in the women’s 81 kilograms took Canada up to eighth place in the final table.

The Canadians had been a talking point all week after medals for two 12-year-olds, Ivy Buzinhani Brustello and her friend Emily Ibanez Guerrero, the youngest ever champion and youngest ever medallist in international weightlifting.

Mohammed Jalood, President of the IWF, said, "I’m surprised to see that Canada is one of the strongest teams here.

"For me, their performance has been special.”

Jalood was also full of praise for nations with historically bad doping records who are showing signs of "culture change."

Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet, a Tokyo 2020 Olympian who managed the Canadian team in Durres, said, "We don’t have a lot of funding in Canada.

"Our old Board didn’t really believe in sending youth teams.

"Now we are getting on the podium, making progress, maybe we will get more funding.

"The kids competed really well in their first time on the big stage."

Love, 15, had backing from an unusual source for the 10,000-mile return journey from her home in Saskatoon to Durres.

Her parents wrote to local companies and Saskatchewan Egg Producers said, 'yes, we will sponsor you.'

"It makes sense because Etta does eat a lot of eggs!" said her mum, Emma.

Love rewarded their support by making 95-130-225 for snatch bronze, clean and jerk gold and silver on total behind Tuana Süren from Turkey on 104-126-230, with Vietnam’s Thi Hien Tran third on 96-124-220.

The Loves still had to spend several thousand dollars – as did the other Canadian team members - because Etta’s brothers Myles, five, and 10-year-old Tom came along with Emma to give their support.

Love, who started lifting aged 10, is coached from afar by Aimee Everett, the American who trains four-times IWF World Championships silver medallist Mattie Rogers.

"Touching the bar makes me feel alive," said Love.

"It was the place that made my mind most free when I started and it’s still the same now."

In the men’s 102kg Irakli Vekua from Georgia made six from six to win on 141-179-320.

Gagik Mkrtchyan from Armenia was second on 139-174-313 and Wang Yu Cheng of Chinese Taipei was third on 138-172-310.

The result made the numbers posted at 102kg yesterday by Nikita Abdrakhmanov from Kazakhstan all the more impressive: his total was 49kg higher than the super-heavyweight winner’s.

Of the 57 nations that sent athletes to Durres, 30 made it to the podium.

Those who performed included several nations who had been banned outright from the re-arranged 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, or lost athlete quotas because of multiple doping violations.

They included table-topping Turkey, plus the nations with the best female and male individual performers, Thailand and Kazakhstan.

Armenia won 15 medals, and both Egypt and Vietnam had world record breakers among their champions.

The success of these teams is good for weightlifting, claimed Jalood, who watched proudly in Durres.

"I am very happy to see that many countries that historically were doping are changing their culture," he said.

"We have seen them win a lot of medals here, showing that they have been creating new generations of weightlifters for three or four years. 

"In that time, they have had zero doping."

Weightlifters in Kazakhstan and India, among others, have been suspended in the past year or two but they have been rooted out by their own National Anti-Doping Organisations.

"This did not happen before, champions were not always tested," Jalood said.

"This shows that we are changing as a sport, we had problems in the past, but we have a good future.”

Jalood was impressed with Turkey and their “"ery good development programme."

Talat Ünlü President of the Turkish Weightlifting Federation, claimed there are nearly 1,000 weightlifters in Turkey aged under 15, and the sport is well funded by the Turkish Government.

"We expected to win plenty of medals here," he said.