North Korean weightlifter sets new world record at Hangzhou Asian Games

HANGZHOU: North Korea maintained an eye-catching display in weightlifting at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Monday (Oct 2) when Kim Il Gyong lifted 111kg, setting a world record for the snatch on her way to gold in the women's 59kg category on day eight of competition.

Kim's lift, achieved with the 20-year-old's third snatch of the women's final, thus eclipsed the previous record of 110kg set in 2021 by Taiwan's star weightlifter, Kuo Hsing-chun, who was also competing on Monday.

The snatch is one half of the final where athletes hoist the bar up in one movement. In the other half, the clean and jerk, athletes first lift the bar up to sit on their shoulders and then attempt to push it above their heads in two movements.

Medals are awarded according to aggregate of best lifts in snatch and clean and jerk.

Kim, who like several of her rivals wore knee supports and a large lifting belt, had suggested she was serious about winning early on by opting to make her first lift in the snatch at 103kg, a weight so high only one of her rivals, China's Luo Shifang, was still lifting.

Current world champion Luo, who was strongly supported by the several hundred-strong crowd in the venue on the southern outskirts of Hangzhou, matched Kim initially but then opted for 107kg with her third snatch, leaving the stage set for Kim to make her world record.

In the clean and jerk, though appearing to grimace slightly more than in the snatch, Kim also made all three lifts. Her third lift was 135kg, 5kg shy of Kuo's world record set in 2019, but enough for a new Games record.

Her total weight lifted for the competition came to 246kg, also a new Games record, but 1kg off Kuo's world record set in 2021. In a thrilling finale and roared on by the crowd, Luo