By Angelica Medina
PARIS (Reuters) – China’s world champion Liu Huanhua put in a superb performance to win the 102kg weightlifting title with a total of 406kg at the Paris Games on Saturday.
Liu lifted an impressive 186kg in the snatch to put himself in a good position, but Armenia’s Garik Karapetyan matched that on his third attempt to put pressure on the Chinese lifter.
However, the 22-year-old Liu came out strongly with a clean and jerk of 220kg on his first attempt. He later lifted an extra eight kgs but it was invalid due to an incorrect arm extension.
Liu then tried to break his world record total of 413kg set at the World Cup in Phuket, Thailand in April, to the rapturous applause of the crowd at the Paris Expo arena.
But despite stretching every sinew, he could not secure the bar above his head for the jerk and dropped it to the mat.
Akbar Djuraev of Uzbekistan took silver with a total 404kg after only registering on his first clean & jerk with 219kg.
Belarusian Yauheni Tsikhantsou, who was competing as a neutral athlete, won bronze with 402kg.
Libya’s Ahmed Abuzriba fainted on stage and received medical attention but was able to walk out to an ovation from the crowd.
The 102kg men’s class is a new Olympic category for Paris after the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) reorganised the programme following the Tokyo Games.
(Reporting by Angelica Medina; Editing by Alison Williams and Ken Ferris)
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