When it comes to pure power and precision, few athletes compare to Chinese weightlifter Shi Zhiyong. Yesterday, Zhiyong wrapped up another stellar performance at the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships bringing home two more IWF senior -73kg world records in the snatch and total.
The 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships — which are serving as a gold level qualification event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — formally kicked off April 18th, and lifting began on April 20th. Yesterday, Zhiyong took the platform in the very competitive -73kg weight class and put on another remarkable performance taking home three gold medals for the snatch, clean & jerk, and total. However, Zhiyong’s win did not come easy after going 4/6 on the day.
In the snatch, Zhiyong opened up his attempts with an easy 160kg. Then for his second attempt, Zhiyong called for 165kg on the bar. This attempt would be enough to break the current -73kg Senior snatch world record of 164kg by 1kg, a record that Zhiyong already owned and set at the 2018 IWF World Championships.
After a successful world record breaking attempt with 165kg, Zhiyong wasn’t finished and went for 168kg on his third attempt.
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Up until the clean & jerks, Zhiyong’s performance had been absolutely picture perfect.
To open his clean & jerks, Zhiyong went for 193kg, which is a pretty routine attempt for him. After easily cleaning the 193kg, Zhiyong unfortunately missed the lift in the jerk. For his second attempt, Zhiyong kept 193kg on the bar, and again — cleaned the weight with ease, but missed the jerk.
At this point, Zhiyong was visibly frustrated. Yuan Chengfei had successfully completed an attempt with 193kg, and it was make or break for Zhiyong. On his third attempt, Zhiyong went for 194kg to edge out Chengfei and successfully made the lift to avoid bombing out after breaking the snatch world record twice.
Zhiyong’s 168kg snatch and 194kg clean & jerk earned him a massive total of 362kg, which sealed him with another -73kg Senior world record on the day. The previous total world record was also held by Zhiyong and stood at 360kg (a record he set at the 2018 IWF World Championships).
Feature image from @luxiaojunbarbell Instagram page.