Over in Tianjin, a city of 15 million people in Northern China, records are continuing to fall as the IWF World Cup continues. At the Silver level qualifying event, which is also known as the IWF Shengxin World Cup, the vast majority of the athletes competing are from Asia — and China has been at the top of its game.
The latest record to fall is the snatch world record in the women’s -64kg class, where Deng Wei broke her own world record with a mighty 117-kilo lift. That’s 258 pounds at 141 pounds bodyweight.
Watch the action go down below:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B57jLCpKMu1/
[For more lifts from the IWF World Cup, check out Shi Zhiyong’s two new world records]
Thanks to the folks at the Shenzhen Weightlifting account, who have been putting up great footage throughout the event, we’ve also got a side-by-side comparison of Deng and Kuo Hsing-Chun, representing Chinese Taipei.
Why, you might be asking, if you really know a lot about weightlifting, is the -59kg Kuo (who holds the clean & jerk and total world records in that class) competing on the same platform as the -64kg Deng? Because Kuo didn’t make weight! She turned up at 60.14 kilos and wound up competing in the -64kg class.
Sounds like a rough go of it for Kuo, but get this: she still got silver in the snatch and gold in the clean & jerk with 141 kilograms. (Deng missed 143 kilos twice, so gold goes to Kuo.) Here’s that first place clean & jerk.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B57toCNqcsc/
And another angle from the account @squat_jerk_journalist.
Kuo’s lift might be a little bittersweet because while she got a nice gold medal against heavier athletes, that 141 kilo clean & jerk would have been a new world record if she’d made weight and competed in the -59kg class.
So a lot of surprises and a lot of drama onstage today, but a truly phenomenal performance from both athletes. Congratulations to both of them.
Featured image via @shenzhenweightlifting on Instagram.
