M81
Snatches were very tight in this group, with the lifters all opening between 155 and 168.
Fight of the day so far went to Brayan Rodallegas Carvajal (COL), who needed two goes to stand up with 167 on his third attempt, having previously missed 165. He made the lift though in an impressive display of determination.
Unusually, both Chinese lifters here, Lyu Xiaojun and Li Dayin both missed their openers, giving other lifters hope that they had left the door to the medals open.
After seeing several of his rivals miss lifts, Andranik Karapetyan (ARM) dropped his opener to 168 and made it comfortably.
The Chinese lifters both hit their second and third attempts, ending on an identical 171 for snatch. That left Karapetyan with two attempts to pull ahead and perhaps even attempt a world record.
The second attempt for the Armenian at 172 did not get overhead and he did the same on his third attempt, handing the advantage back to the Chinese. Lyu Xiaojun took the snatch gold as he hit 171 before Li Dayin.
So, snatches finished as tight as they started, with eleven kilos between all of the athletes and just four kilos separating the top four.
There was an interesting diversion between snatch and clean and jerk, with a martial arts performance on the platform, including knives and acrobatic kicks. At least, we hope it was a performance…
Based on the clean and jerk openers, it looked like the medals would be between Lyu Xiaojun, Li Dayin and Andranik Karapetyan, who all planned to start with 200. However, Lyu dropped his opener to 191, apparently struggling with a lower back issue. He got the lift but the lower opener brought several other lifters into the mix for medals. Immediately after making the lift, he was lying on the floor of the warmup room with ice on his back.
Andranik Karapetyan (ARM) also dropped his opener, to 195 and then dropped it on the platform too, missing it. Suddenly this group was up in the air.
So, each lifter came out the platform now knowing that making lifts could put them into a medal position. Antonino Pizzolato (ITA) could not take the opportunity, missing 195 while Zacarias Bonnat Michel (DOM) grabbed the moment, hitting it.
Lyu was not the only one with an injury issue. Ri Chong Song (PRK) was timed out on his 195 opener and then declined his other attempts.
Two more misses for Karapetyan put him out of the competition. Meanwhile, Lyu was still being iced in the warmup area and looked unlikely to play any further part.
Brayan Rodallegas Carvajal (COL), with his trademark whistling, was best placed to take advantage of the snatch medalists stumbling. He hit 196 to move into current first place in the total.
Li Dayin (CHN) kept his cool and hit 198 for his opener. The clean looked hard but the power clean he executed did not seem to challenge him at all.
We then saw a slew of missed attempts. It seemed like the potential of a medal was causing the field to push themselves beyond their capabilities.
Then, Lyu Xiaojun (CHN) came back to the platform at 205, with eighteen attempts having been made on the platform since his opener. In an inspiring display of courage, he hit the lift to set a new total world record at 376. He then limped from the stage clutching his back.
Li Dayin (CHN) came out for 206 to equal the clean and jerk world standard and retake his total medal. However, he couldn’t stick the jerk. he had one more attempt at it. This time the lift was good. The total record was his once more.
Lyu Xiaojun (CHN) would now need a world record 207 clean and jerk to win. He walked to the platform clearly in a lot of pain. He cleaned it, dropped under the squat jerk and struggled to recover. What a lift! He set the clean and jerk and total world records and took gold.
That is the bravest display of weightlifting that I have seen. If Lyu is at the end of his career, what a way to go out!
Medals
| Snatch | Clean and Jerk | Total | |
| Gold | Lyu Xiaojun (CHN) – 171 | Lyu Xiaojun (CHN) – 207 | Lyu Xiaojun (CHN) – 378 |
| Silver | Li Dayin (CHN) – 171 | Li Dayin (CHN) – 206 | Li Dayin (CHN) – 377 |
| Bronze | Andranik Karapetyan (ARM) – 168 | Yunder Beytula (BUL) – 201 | Brayan Rodallegas Carvajal (COL) – 363 |
New Records
- World total record – Li Dayin (CHN) 377 (later broken)
- World clean and jerk record – Lyu Xiaojun (CHN) – 207
- World total record – Lyu Xiaojun (CHN) – 378
W64
Every single lifter made their opener in this A group and all but one got their second attempts to, meaning the competition moved quickly.
Most lifters were done on snatches by the time the likely medalists came out. Loredana Toma (ROU), Rim Un Sim (PRK) and Deng Wei (CHN) all lifted within a kilo of each other on first and second attempts, leaving third attempts to decide the medals.
Rim Un Sim went first, hitting 114. Toma then asked for 116 to try to take Deng Wei’s world record. Despite having hit it in the training hall a few days ago, she could not make it stick. That left Deng Wei to attempt to extend her own record, which she duly did. She looked like there were a few more kilos in the tank even.
Clean and jerks were about two competitions. One was between most of the athletes for the silver and bronze medals. The other was just Deng Wei against her own medals. Everyone else had finished lifting when Deng opened on 138. She then took 143 on her second attempt to extend her clean and jerk and total world records.
Normally athletes finish when they have broken the records, declining further attempts. Unusually, Deng asked for the bar to be raised to 145 kilos. She completed the lift like it was routine, extending her clean and jerk world record and pushing her total record to 261.
It is a measure of the dominance of the Chinese lifter that Rim Un Sim (PRK) put in a brilliant 6/6 performance but still finished ten kilos back from Deng in the total.
It is a shame that Deng has no competition – we will probably never find out what she is really capable of.
New Records
- World record snatch – Deng Wei (CHN) 116
- World record clean and jerk – Deng Wei (CHN) 143 (later broken)
- World record total – Deng Wei (CHN) 259 (later broken)
- World record clean and jerk – Deng Wei (CHN) 145
- World record total – Deng Wei (CHN) 261
Medals
| Snatch | Clean and Jerk | Total | |
| Gold | Deng Wei (CHN) – 116 | Deng Wei (CHN) – 145 | Deng Wei (CHN) – 261 |
| Silver | Rim Un Sim (PRK) – 114 | Rim Un Sim (PRK) – 137 | Rim Un Sim (PRK) – 251 |
| Bronze | Loredana Toma (ROU) – 112 | Mercedes Perez Tigrero (COL) – 132 | Loredana Toma (ROU) – 240 |
Latest Medal Table
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | ||
| 1 | China | 20 | 11 | 5 |
| 2 | DPR Korea | 5 | 7 | 4 |
| 3 | Turkey | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 4 | Chinese TaiPei | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | India | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Cuba | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 7 | Indonesia | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 8 | Bulgaria | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 9 | Colombia | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 10 | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 11 | Kazakhstan | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | Iran | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 13 | Saudi Arabia | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 14 | Uzbekistan | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 15 | Philipines | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 16 | Romania | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 17 | Japan | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 18 | Albania | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 19 | Armenia | 0 | 0 | 1 |