North Korea’s weightlifting workforce takes a bunch picture after the medal ceremony of the ladies’s 76kg group A weightlifting competitors throughout the 2022 Asian Video games in Hangzhou on October 5, 2023. (Picture by Jade Gao / AFP)
North Korea proclaimed themselves “world leaders” after profitable a sixth Asian Video games weightlifting gold on Thursday to cap their return to worldwide competitors after a four-year absence.
Music Kuk Hyang, final seen on the 2018 Youth Olympics, gained the ladies’s 76kg class in Hangzhou to take North Korea’s whole within the sport to 6 golds, 5 silvers and two bronze.
They presently prime the medals desk in weightlifting.
Music hoisted 150kg together with her ultimate elevate within the clear and jerk to pip teammate Jong Chun Hui by 1kg and clinch the title.
She had earlier cleared 117kg within the snatch for a 267kg whole, with Jong matching the snatch mark however managing solely 149kg within the clear and jerk. South Korea’s Kim Su-hyeon got here third.
North Korean lifters have additionally set six world data, prompting some rival rivals to comment that they had been “shocked” on the spectacular performances after their lengthy absence due to COVID-19.
North Korea’s Music Kukhyang competes within the girls’s 76kg group A weightlifting competitors throughout the 2022 Asian Video games in Hangzhou, China on October 5, 2023. (Picture by JADE GAO / AFP)
Group supervisor Jang Music Nam put all of it all the way down to “laborious work”.
“Each gold medal is payback for our hardship over 4 years,” he mentioned. “We’re world leaders now. We needed to indicate our power and we did it.
“We’ve not been in a position to compete in worldwide weightlifting, however we now have had lots of competitions at house and that’s no much less a typical.”
China’s Tian Tao gained the boys’s 96kg title.
Tian, the 2019 world champion at 96kg and 2014 Asian Video games champion at 81kg, failed at his ultimate clear and jerk of 216kg and had a nervous wait whereas North Korea’s Ro Kwang Ryol tried the 221kg he wanted for gold.
Ro’s no-lift left Tian in entrance with a 4kg margin, having recorded a mixed 390kg throughout the 2 disciplines after a 163kg snatch.
“Bodily I all the time might attain this stage,” mentioned Tian, who has been battling an elbow damage and a leg pressure.
“Nonetheless, the principle problem is my very own accidents, and I depend on my willpower to beat it.”
Ro was North Korea’s final likelihood for extra males’s weightlifting gold.
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“I believed I might make that ultimate elevate however due to an error I didn’t do it,” mentioned Ro.