Riyadh runs red. Halfway through the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) 2023 World Weightlifting Championships (WWC), Team China has amassed more gold medals than any other country — and it’s not close. On Wednesday, Sep. 13, China furthered their lead after weightlifter Liao Guifang set two new world records in the highly-competitive 71-kilogram Group A session.
Guifang, the expected favorite to win the session overall, went five-for-six on the day. She snatched 120 kilograms (264.5 pounds), clean & jerked 153 kilograms (377.3 pounds), for a Total of 273 kilos, or 601.8 pounds. The clean & jerk and Total marked two new Senior world records; the latest of several set in the 71s throughout 2023.
[Check In: 2023 IWF World Weightlifting Championships Full Results]
Guifang had a dominant performance in Saudi Arabia, taking home gold medals across the board. Her 120-kilogram snatch fell just shy of the 121-kilogram world record owned by Ecuador’s Angie Palacios Dajomes, who took silver overall. American athlete Olivia Reeves rounded out the podium in third place.
2023 World Weightlifting Championships | Women’s 71-Kilogram
The 71-kilogram division of women’s weightlifting is one of a number of bodyweight categories that will be contested at the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, which kick off in less than a year. As such, the competition is tighter than ever, especially at prominent weightlifting events like the WWC. Here are the full podium results from the 71A session in Riyadh:
- Liao Guifang (CHN): 273KG WR (120/153 WR)
- Angie Palacios Dajomes (ECU): 255KG (117/138)
- Olivia Reeves (USA): 253KG (111/142)
A Shifting Landscape
Some divisions of Olympic lifting are, for the most part, predictable. Classes like the Women’s 49-kilogram and Men’s +109-kilogram are largely dominated by the same handful of athletes who each vie for the top of the podium. Other classes — such as the Women’s 71-kilogram — are far more tumultuous.
For the past six years, the top slots in the 71s have been in constant flux; as have the world records. At the 2022 WWC last year in Bogotá, Colombia, Romanian weightlifter Loredana Toma set a new world record in the snatch with 119 kilograms (Toma also won the competition outright).
Fast forward a few months into the spring of ’23, and Guifang had inched that record forward by a kilo at the Asian Weightlifting Championships. A month after that, Palacios Dajomes pushed it up again, hitting 121 at the 2023 IWF Grand Prix I.
The battle over the top of the 71-kilogram podium is even fiercer: Since the 71-kilo class was first established in 2018, a different athlete has won the Total gold medal at each yearly World Championships. Guifang reclaimed the class for China for the first time since 2018:
Women’s 71-Kilogram | World Weightlifting Championships 2018 – 2023
- 2018: Zhang Wangli (CHN)
- 2019: Kate Vibert (USA)
- 2021: Meredith Alwine (USA)
- 2022: Loredana Toma (ROU)
- 2023: Liao Guifang (CHN)
Note: The WWC was not held in 2020 due to it initially being an Olympic Games year in addition to complications surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Guifang may be the latest to take the throne, but it seems unlikely that her reign will end anytime soon. She won the 2023 WWC by an 18-kilogram margin and set two new world records in the process. As it stands, an Olympic gold medal for China in the 71s seems like a sure thing.
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Featured Image: William Johnson / @barbellstories
