The 2016 Olympic champion from China Shi ZhiYong just clean and jerked 206 kg in training, 10 kg over his own world record from the 2018 World Championships in Ashgabat where he set all new world records in the snatch, clean and jerk, and total with a 164/206/370 kg performance.
Shi’s 206 kg clean and jerk fits in between the old 69 kg and the 77 kg weight class world records of 198 kg by Liao Hui and 214 kg by Nijat Rahimov. He just needs to replicate this in competition and he will be amongst the modern day greats. We will probably see Shi compete in April at the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships.
When compared with the all time greats of a similar body weight Shi is still behind. Calculate your Sinclair here.
- Alexander Varbanov (-75) 215 kg – Plovdiv ’88
- Zdravko Stoichkov (-75) 211 kg – Varna ’84
- Asen Zlatev (-82.5) 225 kg – Sofia ’86
- Yurik Vardanyan (-82.5) kg – 224 kg – Varna ’84
I don’t imagine it will be long before we see Shi ZhiYong stretching beyond the clean and jerk greats of the last few Olympic quads and joining the ranks of some of the all-time greats. At 25 years of age it is only a matter of time…
Bio
Shi ZhiYong, born 10th October 1993, is a Chinese 69/73 kg weightlifter. Shi is undefeated in senior international competition, taking his first win at the 2012 Asian Championships where he went 144/180 kg in the 69 kg weight class. He also won the 2016 Asian Championships in the 77 kg class with a . Shi won the 2015 and 2018 World Championships with 158/190 kg and a 164/196 kg performances. Shi became Olympic Champion in Rio 2016 in the 69 kg weight class with a 5/6 performance of 162/190 kg.