Men’s 55 kg
Mansour Abdulrahim Al Saleem came into this group hoping to win Saudi Arabia’s first gold medal at an Asian Championships. He came in with the highest entry total (270) and, while he didn’t manage to hit that, the 262 he ended up with was more than enough to hold off second place Muhammad Azroy Hazalwafie (Malaysia) with 248 and Arli Chontey (Kazakhstan) with 246.
Al Saleem has improved a lot over the last year – he finished sixth at the 2018 Asian Championships. Prior to that, his last international competition was the 2015 World Champioships, where he tested positive for Ibutamoren (a growth hormone stimulant) and was suspended for two years.
Men’s 61 kg
The group has a high-quality look about it on the start list and the athletes lived up to it, with six lifters scoring over 900 Robi points and one matching the standard required to score 1000 points before the 10% gold event bonus was applied.
Li Fabin (China) opened up an early five kilo lead with a 141 snatch. His teammate Qin Fulin tried 141 twice but couldn’t make it, so was left with his 136 opener. Thach Kim Tuan (Vietnam) also managed 141. No one could match Li Fabin’s 171 clean and jerk, so he ended up the comfortable winner. Qin Fulin and Eko Yuli Irawan (Indonesia) both made 166 for silver and bronze medal respectively.
Om Yun Chol (North Korea), the 2012 Olympic champion and multiple-times world champion came in sixth with a total eight kilos down on his best as a lighter 56 kg lifter.
Medal Table
| All Medals | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| China | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Saudi Arabi | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Malaysia | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Indonesia | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Sri Lanka | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Vietnam | 0 | 0 | 1 |