The world’s strongest woman is quite the weightlifter. She is just not much of a farmer.
Zhou Lulu of China won a record-breaking over-75kg battle against Tatiana Kashirina of Russia on Sunday with a total of 333kg — more than any other woman had totaled before in two Olympic lifts, but growing up, her size sometimes worked against her.
“My family owns an orchard where they grow apples. I tried to go there, and work for a while and help them out, but when I entered the orchard I was too big,” the 24-year-old Zhou said. “Every time I turned around I would knock something over or hit one of the trees, so all the apples would come tumbling down and I would step on them. So my parents told me to come out and just stop. I was doing more harm than good.”
Photo: Reuters
In weightlifting, she found her place to shine and she did not care if people said the sport was not for women.
“Actually, I like weightlifting. So when you like something, you don’t think if it’s bad for your body shape or not feminine,” Zhou said. “I just do what I like.”
Zhou won China’s fifth weightlifting gold medal in London in a thrilling duel with Kashirina, who also finished second to Zhou at last year’s world championships.
Kashirina was in first place after shattering the world record twice in the snatch and Russia’s first weightlifting gold in London seemed in the bag when she firmed up wobbly legs to reach a world-record total of 332kg in her second clean and jerk.
However, her celebration and world record proved short-lived.
Zhou responded by lifting 187kg in her second clean and jerk to beat her rival’s total by just 1kg.
Exhausted from their high-octane duel, Kashirina could not reply and just dropped the bar in her final attempt.
Had her coaches picked a lower weight for her second clean and jerk, Kashirina might have been able to maintain an advantage over Zhou.
“I’ll put it this way — my job here is just to go on the platform and do the lifting,” Kashirina said. “The rest of it is decided and determined by my coach, the head coach and the rest of the people around me.”
Hripsime Khurshudyan won Armenia’s first medal of the Games by beating defending Olympic champion Jang Mi-ran of South Korea in the battle for bronze.
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots on Sunday fell short in their bid for a first East Asia Super League (EASL) title after a 90-81 loss to Japan’s Utsunomiya Brex in Macau. The defeat marked the second straight year the defending P.League+ champions missed out on the EASL crown, but they remain the first team to reach back-to-back championship games in the league’s three-year history. The outcome was largely decided by long-range shooting. The Pilots struggled from beyond the arc, hitting just five of 20 attempts, while the Brex converted 19 three-pointers, shooting 46.3 percent from long range. Seven of the eight Brex players
Taiwanese boxer and Olympic gold medalist Lin Yu-ting has been approved to compete in the Asian Boxing Elite Championships, the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association (CTBA) said yesterday. The championships start on Saturday next week in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lin became entangled in a gender controversy, despite the International Olympic Committee confirming her eligibility to compete as a female boxer. In August last year, World Boxing mandated a new regulation that required all athletes to undergo a polymerase chain reaction. genetic test to determine their sex at birth and their eligibility. Since the introduction of the test, Lin has missed several
ONE MORE CHANCE: While North Korea denied Taiwan in Australia, Taiwan, who last played in the World Cup in 1991, could still qualify via inter-confederation playoffs Taiwan yesterday lost 4-0 to a dominant North Korea in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup playoffs, closing off an avenue to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Hong Song-ok scored a hat-trick in the match to determine the last of the confederation’s qualifiers from the tournament for next year’s World Cup in Brazil. With their victory over Taiwan, North Korea has qualified for the first time since a doping saga in 2011 led to their long absence from top-tier international tournaments. Angela Beard and Jaclyn Sawicki scored in a six-minute span to help the Philippines secure a World Cup spot with a
Audi, who are just two races into their Formula One journey, have parted company with team principal Jonathan Wheatley “with immediate effect,” the German team said on Friday. The 58-year-old Briton, who spent almost two decades with Red Bull, joined Sauber in April last year. Sauber were subsequently taken over by Audi. “Due to personal reasons, Jonathan Wheatley will depart the team with immediate effect,” Audi said in a statement. “The team thanks Jonathan for his contribution to the project and wishes him the best for his future endeavors. “Mattia Binotto, head of Audi F1 Project, will continue leading the team while taking over
RSS