Asian Games: North Korean Olympic champion breaks weightlifting world record
PUBLISHED ONSeptember 21, 2014 2:05 AM
INCHEON, South Korea - Olympic champion Om Yun Chol broke his own world record for the clean and jerk on his way to North Korea's first gold medal of the Asian Games.
Om raised 170kg above his head to better his old record by 1kg in the men's 56kg class and also set a games record with a combined total of 298kg.
The Olympic gold medallist received a rapturous ovation from the South Korean fans as, having already lifted a Games record 166kg with his second attempt to secure gold, he then lifted more than three times his own body weight.
Records tumbled in an explosive competition as first Chinese favourite Wu Jingbiao, who took silver behind Om at the London Olympics, equalled his Asian Games record of 133kg only to see Vietnam's 20-year-old prodigy Thach Kim Tuan better it with a third attempt of 134kg.
Thach went on to lift a personal best 160kg to set an Asian Games combined record of 294kg, only to see Om shatter it minutes later and condemn the Vietnamese to silver. Wu's 155kg in clean and jerk gave him bronze on 288kg.