Chinese 69kg weightlifter Shi Zhiyong put on a memorable and unofficial world record breaking performance at the 2018 Chinese Weightlifting Nationals.
Currently, the men’s weight classes are wrapping up their portion of the competition. The female Chinese weightlifters competed April 12th-15th, and the men’s competition is underway and began April 19th and extends through April 22nd.
By now, you’ve probably seen the videos of 69kg weightlifter Shi Zhiyong’s epic performance. He’s one of China’s top 69kg competitors and continues to prove that Liao Hui’s world records are very close within his grasp. At this year’s Chinese Weightlifting Nationals, Zhiyong unofficially topped Hui’s 2014 total record of 359kg by 1kg with his massive 360kg total.
Zhiyong earned this total by kicking off his performance with three successful snatch attempts. He nailed his first attempt with 155kg, then crushed his second at 160kg, and made his third 163kg attempt look easy. His final 163kg snatch is 1kg higher than what he snatched at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and is only 3kg shy of Hui’s current world record.
After his three successful snatch attempts, it was time to move into clean & jerks. Zhiyong opened with 185kg and made it look like an absolute warm-up. For his second attempt, Zhiyong moved up 12kg to tackle 197kg, which would earn him the 360kg unofficial world record total.
[We’ve seen Zhiyong clean & jerk more before, check out his 205kg training lift from September 2017!]
Fortunately for fans across the world, Zhiyong nailed his 197kg attempt and made it look incredibly solid. Check out the lift below.
Unfortunately, Zhiyong missed his third attempt, but his total was still enough to unofficially surpass the world record. What’s possibly most interesting about Zhiyong’s lifting is his asymmetry. Watch his setup and when he catches the bar, it’s pretty amazing.
With his new unofficial world record under his belt, we’re pumped to see what the future holds for this young 24-year old weightlifter.
Feature image from @yangyang7878 Instagram page.
