North Korea’s Ri Song Gum gave her country their first gold of the Asian Games on Wednesday in style, setting three world records in the women’s 49kg class in Nagoya.
In the process she joined an elite club of just four weightlifters who have won three Asian Games gold medals.
Ri hauled 94kg above her head in the opening snatch discipline, one kilogramme more than the previous world standard mark of 93kg.
She then smashed the clean and jerk world mark of 115kg twice by hoisting 116kg and then 121kg.
Her total of 215kg obliterated the old world mark by 7kg.
India’s Mirabai Chanu, the silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, finally won an Asian Games medal at the third time of asking.
She had a total of 198kg after a snatch of 87kg and clean and jerk of 111kg while Indonesia’s Diana Tri Wijayana took bronze on 191kg, with 88kg and 103kg respectively.
Ri became only the fourth lifter, and first woman, to win three Asian Games weightlifting golds.
She joined Iran’s Mohammad Nassiri (1966-74), South Korea’s Kim Tae-hyun (1990-98) and Iran’s Behdad Salimi (2010-2018) who all won three golds. No one has ever won four.
India’s Chanu entered the competition after winning gold at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games and added another major medal to her illustrious career.
The silver medal also added to India’s medal tally at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games as the country continued its campaign across multiple disciplines.
Source: Khaleej Times