By Junko Fujita and Ece Toksabay
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s weightlifter Hiromi Miyake reiterated on Saturday that she was retiring after failing with all her attempts except one in the lightest 49-kg women’s category at her fifth Olympic Games.
Miyake, who won bronze at the 2016 Rio Games and silver at London 2012, waved briefly to the volunteers and staff after failing to register any marks for the clean & jerk.
“I am going to take a break from weightlifting for a while and setting up a next goal for my life,” Miyake told a group of reporters after her performance at the delayed Tokyo Games.
“With the Olympics being delayed, I was able to continue my career a bit longer. That was a bonus for me,” she added.
Miyake, 35, started the snatch with the lightest weight among lifters in her group, which included China’s Zhihui Hou who won the gold.
Looking nervous, she succeeded with the first lift of 74-kg but failed in the other snatches. Her challenge against the judgement on her second clean & jerk failed.
“This is the worst result. I was not expecting anything like this,” said Hiromi’s father and coach Yoshiyuki Miyake.
“I don’t have any words to express this. There were just a series of unexpected things.”
Hiromi Miyake was born to be a weightlifter. In addition to Yoshiyuki, who won bronze at the 1968 Olympics, her uncle Yoshinobu Miyake claimed gold at the 1964 Games in Tokyo and in Mexico City four years later.
But her path to Tokyo was not easy after a series of injuries. She took a break after the 2016 Olympic Games to focus on treatment for a back injury.
Hiromi said she was getting weaker mentally and physically after the Rio Games.
“In the past five years, my mental (condition) got weaker and it was different from the past,” she said. “Weightlifting is really fun. It is just that I have reached the limit of my physical strength.”
(Reporting by Junko Fujita and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Ken Ferris)
