The first day of competition has concluded in Pattaya, Thailand at the 2019 World Weightlifting Championships. The highlight of the day came in the men’s 55KG category, where North Korea’s Om Chul Yun swept all 3 gold medals on his way to setting a new World Record in the clean & jerk and the overall total, winning his 5th World Championship.
Om started the competition by successfully making all 3 attempts in the snatch and finishing with 128KG in the lift. He needed two attempts to break the clean & jerk record. After opening with a conservative 155KG clean & jerk, he jumped to 163KG only to miss the lift. The problem turned out to be that he needed more weight, as he came back to make 166KG on his third attempt for a triple bodyweight lift that represented a new World Record in clean and jerk and overall total (294KG).
Men’s 55KG overall medalists:
Gold – Om Chul Yun (PRK) 294KG
Silver – Igor Son (KAZ) 266KG
Bronze – Mansour Abdulrahim Al Saleem (KSA) 265KG
Medals were also awarded in the woman’s 45KG session, where Saziye Erdogan of Turkey was crowned World Champion for the first time. This marked a significant improvement on her 11th place finish from last year’s event. She was successful in five of her six attempts, and for the day she also gold in the snatch and silver in the clean & jerk.
Women’s 45KG overall medalists:
Gold – Saziye Erdogan (TUR) 169KG
Silver – Ludia Montero Ramos (CUB) 167KG
Bronze – Lisa Setiawati (INA) 165KG
Earlier in the day, team Canada’s 2019 competition was lead off by Amanda Braddock in the 49Kg category. She finished the day with 174KG in the overall total, which represented a personal best of + 4KG.
Team USA starts their competition tomorrow, Thursday September 19th when two athletes from the Women’s team will be competing. 2016 Olympian Morghan King will compete in the 49KG B session at midnight (CST) and 2019 Pan American Champion Alyssa Ritchey will compete at 5:55 AM (CST) in the 49KG A session.
Featured image: @iwfnet on Instagram
