PATTAYA, Thailand, Sept. 21 -- China's star weightlifter Shi Zhiyong claimed a landslide victory of all the three gold medals in the men's 73kg category as the 2019 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships continued here on Saturday.
Shi, also the 2016 Olympic gold medalist, started with the highest opening weight of 160kg in snatch and made three good lifts. He claimed the gold in snatch with 166kg which was nine kilograms higher than the silver medalist, Bulgaria's Bozhidar Dimitrov Andreev. Briken Calja of Albania took the bronze on 156kg at the second attempt and gave up the last attempt.
Shi continued to sweep in clean and jerk as he made a good lift of 197kg at the second attempt, refreshing his own world record by one kilogram. He gave up the last attempt as the athlete said he suffered from some injuries in the shoulder three days before the competition. DPR Korea's O Kang Chol won the silver in clean and jerk with 193kg while Andreev took the bronze on 189kg.
With a dominant advantage in total, Shi won the gold medal on 363kg, enhancing his own world record by one kilogram. O took the silver of total with 347kg and Andreev won the bronze on 346kg.
In the women's 59kg division, fierce competition took place among Kuo Hsing-Chun from Chinese Taipei, Choe Hyo Sim of DPR Korea and China's Chen Guiming. Choe led in snatch by making three good lifts and breaking the world record on 107kg at the last attempt. Kuo followed her with a good lift of 106kg at the third attempt. Chen took the bronze on 101kg.
Both Kuo and Choe, who made all three good lifts in clean and jerk, set the world record in succession at the last attempt. After Choe broke Kuo's former record by one kilogram with 138kg, Kuo again broke the newly-made world record on 140kg. Chen finished third with 132kg at the second attempt.
In the women's 59kg category, Kuo won the gold of total on 246kg while Choe took the silver on 245kg. Both athletes broke Kuo's 243kg world record of total in women's 59kg. The bronze went to Chen with 233kg in total.
The 10-day championships, running through September 27, also serves as qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.