Charismatic North Korean Kim Un-guk and China’s Li Xueying broke a raft of records as they handed out a masterclass in weightlifting at the London Olympics on Monday.
Kim set a world record for the total thanks to equaling another in the snatch that was the basis for an emphatic victory in the men’s under-62kg class.
Li broke two Olympic records as she crushed her rivals on the way to claiming gold in the women’s under-58kg class in a third day of enthralling action at a packed Excel Centre.
Photo: EPA
While Li was understated in her performance, Kim was anything but as he whipped the 6,000-capacity stadium into a frenzy with his flamboyant showmanship at the barbell.
Kim snatched 153kg, a new Olympic record, to match Chinese lifter Shi Zhiyong’s world record and then went on to clean and jerk 174kg for a combined total of 327kg, beating the previous record best held by China’s Zhang Jie by 1kg.
Colombian Oscar Figueroa claimed a shock silver with a total of 317kg (140kg and 177kg), his clean and jerk a new Olympic record, while Indonesia’s Irawan Eko Yuli took bronze with 317kg (145kg and 172kg) on the bodyweight rule.
Photo: EPA
Each time he set foot on the podium, Kim grinned at the cheering crowd, a roar as he approached the barbell eliciting similar grunts in reply from the delighted spectators.
Kim’s reaction after each successful lift was one of unmitigated joy, prompting him to scream, shake his right fist over the bar and jump in the air, before rapidly skipping off the platform. The crowd, quite simply, adored it.
His superiority in the snatch saw him take a massive 13kg lead over Zhang, the favorite for the event, into the clean and jerk. The Asian Games champion failed with his third clean and jerk, missing a podium place by 3kg.
In the women’s competition, Asian Games champion Li, also the current world silver medalist, produced a stunning performance, recording a combined total of 246kg after snatching 108kg, then registering a best in the clean and jerk of 138kg. Both the snatch and total were Olympic records.
She narrowly missed a final clean and jerk at 144kg which would have given her the world record.
“I didn’t do well last year at the world champs and that was a hard lesson to learn,” said Li, playing down her superiority over the rest of the field. “In every competition, I try my best. I don’t pay attention to my rivals, strong or not. I was a little nervous because it’s my first Olympic Games. I was a bit hasty on my first snatch, I wasn’t quite as calm as normal.”
Thailand’s Pimsiri Sirikaew took silver with a total of 236kg (100kg and 136kg), while Ukraine’s Yuliya Kalina claimed bronze with 235kg (106kg and 129kg).
Taiwan’s Kuo Hsing-chun finished eighth after lifting 228kg (99kg and 129kg).
The gold medal showing was sweet revenge for Li over Belarus’ current world champion Natassia Novikava, who trumped the Chinese lifter at last year’s world championships in Paris.
Novikava dramatically saw her final clean and jerk ruled out by the judges after she tottered on the stage and the Belarus lifter missed out on the podium altogether, finishing down in seventh place.
Additional reporting by Staff writer
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Tennis players are facing an unexpected opponent at the Madrid Open. A stomach virus or food poisoning has affected Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Marin Cilic and others, raising concerns. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka avoided an upset by Naomi Osaka on the court on Monday and said she is trying to avoid illness by sticking to a diet of chicken breasts, rice and salad. The rumor among the players was bad shrimp tacos were to blame. Sabalenka knocked on wood for luck and said, “So far, so good. I heard that I have to avoid those tacos,” she laughed, adding “I stick to the
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
RSS